FB - WhatsApp rushes to stave off privacy concerns as users flee to Signal and Telegram

Scrambling to deal with a sudden competitive threat to its messaging platform WhatsApp, Facebook (FB) has released a statement clarifying the upcoming changes to its terms of service. The privacy concerns have already triggered users to turn to rivals in droves, according to data from Sensor Tower. Signal was downloaded 8.8M times worldwide in the week after the changes were first announced on Jan. 4 vs. 246K times the week prior. Telegram meanwhile reached 11.9M downloads (vs. 6.5M), while WhatsApp recorded 9.7M downloads following the announcement, a decrease of 14% from the week before.What will change with the latest updates? Facebook and WhatsApp will now be able to share certain payments and transactions data in order to boost advertising (think Facebook Shops). The changes also describe how merchants communicating with customers via WhatsApp can choose to store those chats in Facebook-hosted servers and use that data to inform their advertising

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WhatsApp rushes to stave off privacy concerns as users flee to Signal and Telegram