WhatsApp has remained the default messaging application for majority of the people around the world. There are a total of 1.5 billion active users of WhatsApp on monthly basis, and that makes it the most widely used messaging service in the world.

As it is known already that Facebook is currently under heavy criticism for its negligent privacy control. As a matter of fact, Facebook uses the keywords from different messages sent through FB Messenger for the targeted advertisements.

On the other hand, so far, WhatsApp has remained ad-free messaging app. Mark Zuckerberg has plenty of times assured that Facebook does not spy on the users.

The co-founder of WhatsApp, Mr. Jan Koum, was appointed as one member of the board of directors of Facebook, after the purchase of WhatsApp by Facebook.

Is WhatsApp Shutting Down?

Jan has recently made the announcement that he is resigning from Facebook. Internal reports in this regard suggest that he is resigning due to the conflict with ideas of Zuckerberg about respecting the user privacy.

Koum has always remained the advocate of user privacy, and this was the idea behind him making WhatsApp. When WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook, Jan said, “Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible. If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values, we wouldn’t have done it.”

He had also committed to make the messages sent or received on WhatsApp decentralized, end-to-end encrypted and fully private. Many loopholes within Facebook’s privacy control has been revealed through the Cambridge Analytica scandal, after which concerns were raised about the company’s focus on selling the user data to the different advertisement companies. Rather than changing the values, Jan Koum had decided to leave Facebook.

Jan’s resignation might mean that in near future, there would be complete change in privacy policies of WhatsApp, as Facebook will easily be inclined to make changes and hence pull user data collected from the app for using it into the advertising platform.

WhatsApp developers’ team, on the other hand, believes that Facebook will probably use this app for essentially tracking the user data and will therefore use it for display advertisements especially after Jan Koum has departed.

Do We have Alternatives?

So far, WhatsApp has not commented on this developing situation about its stance about dealing with the privacy policies in future. Therefore, now will be a good time that you may switch to another reliable and more protected app. As far as the good security features are concerned, Telegram is a better platform, but unfortunately it does not work in Pakistan.

Signal is another app available on both Android and iOS, which is free, reliable fast and comes with end-to-end encryption. If you further look into the alternatives, then Threema is another good option, which is also available on iOS and Android. This is however paid app, which costs around Rs. 320, but it provides user security and maximum encryption. iMessage, Apple’s proprietary app, will also be a good option if you are currently iPhone user and want to switch from WhatsApp. So, make your choices accordingly, and act as soon as possible before your data is used for advertisement purposes.