Here we have an exodus driven by *privacy* concerns surrounding the new policy. Users fled from WhatsApp to other services with the intent of keeping their conversations more private. The subset of those who switched to Telegram made their conversations strictly *less* private, achieving the opposite of their goals.
There is something wrong with that.
That's not strictly true. Users fled whatsapp to keep their messages away from Facebook. It could be a concern for privacy or a concern for not letting Facebook (specifically) monetize their conversations.
There's "I'm plotting criminal activities or planning to overthrow my government" messaging which requires secure encryption.
And there's "I don't particularly want to be followed round the intarwebs by adverts for piles ointment, because I mentioned my itchy arse in a message to someone" which requires respect for your privacy.
I reckon most of us are happy enough with the latter in daily use. And, when we do need to plot an overthrow of the government, we can always flick the big "secret chat" switch. I think Telegram just about gets the balance right; sacrificing some default secrecy for ease of use, seamless sync across all your devices and 'fun' things which are likely to lead to wider adoption --whilst also allowing you to switch on the more secure stuff, as and when you need it.
> Specifically, users had 30 days after first seeing the 2016 privacy policy notice to opt out of “shar[ing] my WhatsApp account information with Facebook to improve my Facebook ads and product experiences.” The emphasis is ours; it meant that WhatsApp users were able to opt out of seeing visible changes to Facebook ads or Facebook friend recommendations, but could not opt out of the data collection and sharing itself.
Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/01/its-business-usual-wha...
Whatever flaws Telegram got, it seems less impactful than getting mined by facebook and the practical design failings of Signal.
I can see some benefit with Signal being open source.
I think this may have been resolved now. However the issue remains that you cannot delete signal contacts and legacy groups, which means anyone who gets a hold on your phone number (without a pin) or phone, or account access to third party involved, got evidence for communication between you and a possible incriminating entity.
> Contacts must be blocked in order to be removed from your Signal Contact List. To learn how to block someone, click here.
https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/360007319011-Ma...
You either have the contact in your contact list, or block list... I hope that's obviously supporting my claim.
Some of these meta data leaks may have been changed and are a result of my old account, however Signal lost my trust. (And lost sympathy over Moxy Marlinspike's opinions and presentation over time, e.g. the hangover/drunk "centralization: good" CCC talk, the F-droid drama, ...)
Oh the irony of a knee jerk reaction fleeing an end-to-end encrypted messaging service to a messaging service that only offers opt-in encryption that more often than not doesn't get used. There was never any proposal to remove encryption anywhere, only add a new feature that, by the very nature of it, didn't lend itself to practical end-to-end encryption.