There is no such thing as a free lunch, and with the concerning privacy changes to the world’s most popular chatting service, people have started to scramble to find another medium to share their favourite memes and YouTube videos.
Privacy certainly has become a bigger concern for the consumer. I had been watching a review by Unbox Therapy, wherein the content creator pointed out that iMessage, the Apple proprietary messaging service, did not strip away location data when sharing a photo, allowing the person on the other end to potentially track you. Clicking off the video, I was bombarded with messages about a change to WhatsApp’s privacy policy, and how it might start harvesting data from users’ phones.
People wanted to leave WhatsApp, but there were not sure about where to go. More importantly, they were not sure about whether or not they could.
The Facebook-owned messaging service, with over two billion users, had announced that it would start collecting meta-data of its users, including location data, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, phone model, operating system (OS), battery level, signal strength, browser, mobile network, Internet service provider (ISP), language, time zone, and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers.
WhatsApp has further stated that those who do not accept the new privacy policy by February 8, 2021, would have their accounts deleted.
“Some businesses might be working with third-party service providers (which may include Facebook) to help manage their communications with their customers,” the company added.
Coincidentally, this change in privacy policy came shortly after Apple mandated that all developers uploading their applications on the App Store must provide ‘privacy labels’ to make clear which data and permissions are being accessed by the application. This move resulted in backlash from Facebook, who took out multiple full page newspaper ads against the policy.
WhatsApp used to state: “Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA. Since we started WhatsApp, we’ve aspired to build our Services with a set of strong privacy principles in mind”: However, users have been quick to point out that this line no longer exists in the new policy.
Multiple users expressed fear privacy exploitation by the Facebook-owned service, especially as CEO Mark Zuckerberg had two years ago apologised for failing to prevent Cambridge Analytica during a two-day congressional inquisition in the United States.
As such, there is sufficient reason to consider another platform, but WhatsApp, like any social media app, is only as good as its user base.
A teacher based in Lahore lamented that she could not actually remove WhatsApp from her phone because of all the work-related group chats. Another friend of mine, a model, said that while she might understand the concerns, she cannot deal with the headache of keeping up with two different chat apps.
During these conversations, I got a WhatsApp message from my foodpanda deliveryman, asking me to send the location as he could not find my house.
Of course, the concerns with WhatsApp were not limited to civilians. Regarding the data policy, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said that the government was making efforts to introduce a strong data protection law to protect citizens’ privacy.
According to Radio Pakistan, Fawad had said, “such policy changes should have been made after wider consultation”.
Responding to the ongoing news threads regarding the change in privacy terms and conditions of WhatsApp, the Ministry of Information and Technology in a statement said that it is monitoring the current developments and clarifications provided by Facebook, TLTP reported.
“It is brought to notice that subject changes in privacy are applicable on WhatsApp business accounts only while regular non-business/individual profiles/accounts are not affected,” reads the statement.
The ministry emphasised to all digital social media platforms, including WhatsApp, to adhere to privacy rights of citizens of Pakistan. In this regard, all such digital platforms need to strengthen their engagements with the government of Pakistan so that concerns of the general public and businesses can be well addressed by all means, said the statement.
Amid the raised security concerns, Pakistan on Tuesday had announced it would develop its own messaging app, which would include all modern communication features such messages, voice calls and videos.
The app will be developed by the Ministry of Information Technology and IT experts. The work on the project will start after getting approval from the federal cabinet.
This is not the first time Pakistan has attempted to throw its hat into the social media circle. In 2019, there had been reports of the federal government launching its own chat service, named Govt App, and in 2020, the government had concerned banning the use of WhatsApp and other social networking applications by government servants, reported Geo News.
These developments, however, ring with the same effectiveness and impact as the temporary ban the government placed on TikTok, or the ban on YouTube from the mid-2010s. The end user leans towards convenience, even if the current conversation is on security.
Pakistan has had a muddled history with privacy in the past. Privacy International (PI) submitted a stakeholder report in March 2017 wherein it highlighted that while Article 14(1) of the Constitution confirms that “[t]he dignity of man and, subject to law, the privacy of home, shall be inviolable”, it also includes a wide-ranging exception to the primacy of fundamental rights.
The provisions of Article 8 do not apply to any law relating to the ‘proper discharge’ of the duties of the Armed Forces or the police.
The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) was passed by the National Assembly (NA) on August 11, 2016, and has since been scrutinised by Pakistani and international human rights organisations.
The then United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression had presented his concerns and urged Pakistan to “undertake a rigorous and thorough reassessment of the Bill to ensure its compliance with the international human rights law and standards, and keep the public informed of how any future amendments ensures such compliance.”
PI’s report showed that, as part of licensing requirements, online service providers must make their communications networks ‘lawful interception-compliant’ by installing on their network components that comply with various international interception protocols, or external ‘probes’ somewhere along the transmission cables to allow signals carried on their network to be transmitted to monitoring facilities of requesting government agencies.
One of the alternatives posited by the masses has been Telegram, which reported that it had gained 25 million new users within the past 72 hours.
Telegram surpassed 500 million active users. 25 million new users joined in the last 72 hours: 38% came from Asia, 27% from Europe, 21% from Latin America and 8% from MENA. https://t.co/1LptHZb9PQ
— Telegram Messenger (@telegram) January 12, 2021
Moreover, Telegram had previously been banned due to its encryption protocol. Similarly, Telegram had been banned in Iran and Russia earlier as well, with the latter having been lifted only last year.
As per PTA instructions, Telegram Messaging Application on PTCL Network have been Blocked till further notice.
— PTCL (@PTCLOfficial) November 18, 2017
No announcement had been made regarding the lifting of the ban, but in January last year, users reported that they could use the app without needing a VPN. However, the ban by Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) should not be taken as stamp of approval on Telegram’s encryption protocol.
Compared to Signal, Telegram is known and liked for its bells and whistles, such as a wide collection of stickers, cloud storage, true cross platform use. While Telegram founder Pavel Durov touts the privacy features of the app such as phone number visibility options, it is worth mentioning that the highest level of encryption is not activated by default.
The default setting of the app utilises a client-to-server protocol, wherein the messages are stored in the cloud and the server even has access to a complete copy of all chats, according to researchers at German industry specialist website Heise Security.
The ‘Secret Chats’ feature on Telegram does offer end-to-end encryption (e2ee), and the self-destruct timer for messages can improve security as well, but both these settings are relatively hidden. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has e2ee activated for all individual and group chats as the default.
While Signal is concerned the premier app for privacy, it has seen only about 100,000 users installing the messaging platform across the app stores of Apple and Google in the last two days, according to Sense Tower reports.
The desire of more aesthetically pleasing or feature rich apps might explain why Telegram has seen a greater rise of users than Signal, in spite of the latter’s high security.
Telegram, a chat service privately own and funded by Russian Pavel Durov, and Signal, touted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, have seen a significant uptick in the number of active users over the past week, while new installs of WhatsApp fell 11 per cent in the first seven days of 2021 compared with the prior week, enterprise-level data provide Sensor Tower reported.
Amid backlash, the company clarified that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook could see the messages users sent to each other, and they could not hear the conversations over calls either. Apart from that, the platform also did not maintain a record of who was messaging or calling whom, and the groups on WhatsApp were also private.
We want to address some rumors and be 100% clear we continue to protect your private messages with end-to-end encryption. pic.twitter.com/6qDnzQ98MP
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) January 12, 2021
It is pertinent to mention that the e2ee utilised by WhatsApp was developed with Moxy Marlinspike’s Open Whisper Systems (OWS) to integrate the Signal encrypted messaging protocol, but it is a modified version of the protocol.
Furthermore, while OWS is considered the gold standard by cryptology experts, WhatsApp has had data breach scandals.
Private groups on WhatsApp are usually only accessible by those who have been sent an invite link by a moderator. However, these links were indexed by Google, making them discoverable by everyone and were shown in Google searches, reported Daily Sabah earlier this week. A similar issue was seen in February last year.
Moreover, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri on Twitter said, “There is a lot of misinformation about the WhatsApp ToS right now. The policy update does *not* affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family in any way. The changes are related to messaging a business on WhatsApp, which is optional.”
It would be remiss not to mention that while WhatsApp might be asking for more metadata now, the kind that is asking for are already being accessed by applications such as Facebook and Instagram, and to users to access those apps on their phones, the changes in policy do not make a considerable difference in the data collected by Facebook Inc.
