A non-scientific estimate tells me that over 80% of Jewish Link readers use WhatsApp. WhatsApp has been in the news recently, with many stories, most of them negative, as their terms of service and privacy policies are changing, most specifically, that WhatsApp will be sharing data with Facebook, their parent company.

While WhatsApp just pushed off those changes to March 2021, the underlying question is: Should you stop using WhatsApp and use an alternative messaging application like Signal or Telegram that is more privacy oriented? Like most security and privacy questions, the answer is “it depends.”

If you are concerned about your data privacy and the only change you are making is to ditch WhatsApp, then you really won’t be gaining much. But if ditching WhatsApp and moving to a more privacy-aware application is the first step in your more aggressive data privacy journey, then you are on to something.

Before I proceed, let’s review some things. Noted security expert Bruce Schneier noted that “If the service is free, then you are the data.” What that means is that free services like Gmail, LinkedIn, Facebook (including Messenger), Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and myriad other applications are giving you their services at no charge with the understanding that they can offer you advertisements and mine your posts and communications for data about you.

By gathering data, these online services can determine your likes and interests and sell that information to advertisers. By using WhatsApp, there are literally scores of details that Facebook can determine and monetize. From your physical location, IP address, how many times you open the app, details about the device you use, whom you communicate with and how often and much more.

Similarly, when you shop at Target, Stop & Shop, Rite Aid, Walgreens, ShopRite and the like, they will ask you to enter your phone number or scan your rewards card. This allows them to provide you with sales and discounts, and also save your order in their records. They use this information about your buying habits to understand your purchasing patterns, in order to offer you coupons and better purchasing suggestions.

Almost a decade ago, the Forbes article “How Target Figured Out a Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did” hit the nail on the head when they wrote that every time you go shopping, you share intimate details about your consumption patterns with retailers. And many of those retailers are studying those details to figure out what you like, what you need and which coupons are most likely to make you happy. Target, for example, has figured out how to data-mine its way into your womb, to figure out whether you have a baby on the way long before you need to start buying diapers.

All of these buying patterns translate into metadata, which is data about data. So how powerful is metadata? General Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA and NSA, made headlines in 2014 when he said that “we kill people based on metadata.”

After a few months of use, these free services have generated a significant dossier on you. These are sold to advertisers to serve you ads more targeted to your likes, serve you stories of more interest to you etc.

In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion. At the time, there were about 465 million WhatsApp users, jumping to 2 billion users today. Facebook did not spend all that money to offer a free service. They saw massive advertising potential in WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is not interested in the content of your messages. Instead they have their eyes on the metadata. They will analyze whom you are communicating with, groups you belong to, the group members and the like. Based on the analytics, they will be able to sell that data to advertisers.

This leads us to the great WhatsApp controversy of 2021. WhatsApp started notifying users of a change in their privacy policy & terms of service. If you have ever read these types of documents, they are not exactly user-friendly, and are often incomprehensible to anyone without a law degree. This, combined with the poor communication methods Facebook has used in the past, combined with an overall mistrust of Facebook, led to much hysteria on social media and the general media.

The policy changes also had more to do with the WhatsApp Business app, as opposed to the personal version, which most of us use. WhatsApp Business is intended to help businesses communicate and interact directly with their customers for better online shopping experiences.

When Elon Musk tweeted to his 41 million followers to “Use Signal,” the hysteria went full force. Signal is another messaging service, quite similar to WhatsApp. But unlike WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, a company with an abysmal record of privacy protection, Signal is managed by a nonprofit organization. The Signal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with the mission “to support, accelerate and broaden Signal’s mission of making private communication accessible and ubiquitous.”

With all the privacy concerns about WhatsApp, many people have made a knee-jerk move to Signal and Telegram, thinking that the privacy and security grass is greener on the other side of the messaging platform. But Yossie Strickman, president at Project Trust, cautioned against moving to Telegram. He noted that Telegram has been the platform of choice to share pornography, drug dealing and myriad other salacious activities.

Strickman noted that a particular area of concern on Telegram is its “Channels,” which are used to broadcast messages to larger audiences. While there are plenty of beneficial channels one can access, the worst of the worst on the internet is but a channel away on Telegram. That, combined with the much more social nature of Telegram, should be a concern to parents and others.

If you’re considering leaving WhatsApp, remember that just because Signal has better privacy protections today does not mean it will be secure next year. The critical thing that needs to be done is not changing the messaging platform, but changing your lousy privacy habits. And while the Signal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) today, there’s nothing stopping it from being on the NASDAQ one day.

So with all that, should you ditch WhatsApp? Consider a smoker who goes through two packs a day. He starts taking the dangers of smoking more seriously and cuts down from 40 cigarettes a day to 35. I’m no pulmonologist, but I think the effect of such change would not be significant enough to make much of an impact on his health.

So if you are going to ditch WhatsApp but make no other change to the way you use online services, you have taken a few reasonable steps, but have not accomplished much in the more significant privacy journey.

But suppose the brouhaha around WhatsApp has made you resolve to start taking privacy more seriously, and it is a start to making severe changes in the way you share your personal information, general preferences, buying habits and the like. In that case, ditching WhatsApp for Signal is the first step on the long journey to better personal privacy.

Ben Rothke lives in New Jersey and works in the information security field. He reviews books on religion, technology and science.