Page 19 - Seniors Today - January Issue

Focus
The Glass Wall of Privacy
Nagesh Alai comments on the uproar over WhatsApp’s recent revised
privacy policy, and users’ eager migration to rival platforms
Our footprints on the sands of time are
‘anitya’ or impermanent, but our footprints
on the highways of digital are ‘nitya’ or
permanent. It is a travesty of sorts that the
transience of our life which many of us try
hard to comprehend and internalise is so
emphatically disrupted by the permanence
of our digital living impelled by technology.
The past few days have seen a spew of
fire engulfing the latest privacy policy of
WhatsApp, forcing people to either agree
to their data being shared on Facebook or
else quit the app. An adamantine ‘Mark’
literally ‘sucks’ with the users which might
perhaps lead to an exodus larger than what
Moses led out of Egypt aeons ago. Tellingly,
Telegram and Signal are witnessing an
influx of piqued millions, on the perception
of a relative safety of privacy. At last count,
WhatsApp had 2 billion users, Telegram
about 400 million and Signal about 10
million.
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #19 | JANUARY 2021
Over the past few days, Signal, the flavour
of the day, has seen a million users signing
up every day and chat groups in hordes
shifting out to it. Businesses and corporate
heads (including tech entrepreneur Elon
Musk of Tesla) are encouraging or rather
mandating shifting out from WhatsApp
to Signal. It will be a matter of time before
the number equations change significantly
between WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal,
unless of course WhatsApp makes a retreat
on its privacy policy. Interestingly, other
chats are being developed and coming to the
fore, like ‘Arattai’ literally meaning chat or
gossip in Tamizh. I also see Viber, another
app not much top-of-mind currently,
regaining relevance over time.
The encryption question
End-to-end encryption is projected as a
guarantee of privacy and everyone claims
it in some form or the other, which to most
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