WhatsApp’s latest privacy policy update that highlights further integration and data sharing with its parent company Facebook has been making headlines ever since it popped up as an in-app notification for users.

Following backlash, the Facebook-owned messaging platform pushed the deadline for users to accept the policy in India from February 8 to May 15, 2021. The Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology (MEITY) also intervened and wrote to WhatsApp asking them to withdraw the proposed policy changes and sharing of user data.

While the messaging platform has issued multiple clarifications, Mark Zuckerberg went on to defend WhatsApp’s privacy policy and reiterated that the update does not change the privacy of anyone’s messages shared on the platform.

However, according to a LocalCircles survey, Privacy Policy changes promoted 5 percent of Indians to delete WhatsApp and have downloaded alternate apps such as Signal and Telegram to use actively. A breaking down of the poll shows that 16 percent Indians said they had downloaded alternate apps and started using them actively. Around 34 percent of the users said that they although they had downloaded alternate apps, they had not started using them actively. Around 15 percent said they are still using WhatsApp and 6 percent said they had reduced its usage, but had not downloaded alternate apps. Moreover, 18 percent of WhatsApp users said they plan to continue using WhatsApp as they did, while 6 percent were unsure whether they would move on from WhatsApp.

67% Indian users actively use WhatsApp; 21 percent are active on alternate apps

The survey results indicated that 67 percent of Indians are still actively using WhatsApp. There were 22 percent citizens who said they had reduced usage of the Facebook-owned messaging app.

According to app analytics firm Sensor Tower, Signal recorded 26.4 million downloads from India between January 4 and 17, while Telegram had recorded 9.1 million downloads. There were 5 million new downloads for WhatsApp during the period. The latest survey by LocalCircles indicated that while 55 percent of citizens have downloaded alternate apps, 21 percent were actively using them. Many of these users could have already had Signal and Telegram downloaded on their phones before the new WhatsApp policy changes were proposed.

75% users say no chatting on WhatsApp Business accounts

The survey further asked citizens if going forward they plan to continue chatting with WhatsApp Business accounts, to which 75 percent users said, “No”. Mere 13 percent of citizens said they will not use payments, but may use business chats. Only 1 percent said they will use both business chat and payments. There were 7 percent who voted “can’t say”.

The latest survey is based on over 17,000 responses from users across 232 districts in India. Around 64 percent respondents were men while 36 percent respondents were women. Almost 52 percent of the respondents were from tier 1 cities, 29 percent from tier 2 and 19 percent respondents were from tier 3 cities.

 

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