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On January 7, physicist and technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, the world's first fortune according to Forbes, launched a tweet: "Usa Signal". Surely not all of his followers, who number 42.4 million, followed his advice. But the truth is that a week later, the instant messaging application went from 10 to 50 million downloads, as published by the platform on its Twitter. In the same week, Telegram, another well-known rival of both Signal and WhatsApp, also reached another record, increasing by 25 million users in just 72 hours. And these figures indicated that the Musk tweet wasn't the only reason that instant messaging applications other than WhatsApp were increasing their number of users.

What's happening? According to the experts, it's all a reaction to WhatsApp's announcement that it started circulating at the beginning of the year, reporting changes to its privacy terms whereby it announced that it would share its users' data with its owner Facebook for use in all of its services. Accepting the conditions before February 8 was necessary to continue using the service. But users' reactions have made him backtrack, and last Friday he postponed acceptance of his new policy until May 15th. According to the experts, behind this decision lies the fact that there is a growing awareness of the need for our data to be respected, and the user is beginning to exercise his power. "It is very healthy that there are people who consider stopping using the services of an application to avoid compromising their data," says Pierre Bourdin, professor of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications Studies at the UOC. "It is the power that the user has: if he threatens the big companies with leaving them if their privacy is not respected, their policy can change. Otherwise, they will continue to trade with them".

The unaffected, also against
His opinion coincides with that of César Córcoles, also a professor at the Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications and director of the UOC's Master's Degree in Web Site and Application Development, who says it is great news that users are increasingly aware of their right to privacy. "It's very positive that when one of these notices goes off, at least we ask ourselves what is happening when using an application, whether it is a messaging application or not," he says, adding that one point that proves it is that, although European users are not affected by the change in conditions posed by WhatsApp as they are protected by the General Regulation of Data Protection of the European Union, users on the European continent have also said "enough". At least, that seems to be indicated by the Telegram figures, since of the 25 million new users, 27% come from Europe.

As César Córcoles, researcher at the UOC's Technology Enhanced Knowledge and Interaction Group (TEKING) explains, the fact that we are not affected by the change in conditions does not mean that WhatsApp does not collect data from its users, including Europeans. "It does so since before 2021, and that will remain the same. In fact, WhatsApp collects more data than Telegram, and in turn Telegram collects more data than Signal," he says, indicating that although all three need data from their users, the difference is in how many and which of them access it and what use they make of it. However, none of the three have access to the content of the messages we exchange, because they use very secure cryptography protocols, "but they do know that you cross messages with your mother, your partner or a co-worker with a certain frequency, and in the case of WhatsApp, they can also access other data, such as your approximate location," explains Córcoles.

That's why, if some of the user's friends go to London on vacation and exchange several messages with him, the application could use it to offer that user advertising that they think will interest him, for example, related to a vacation in London. "It is not because they are talking about London, but because WhatsApp knows that the user is talking to someone who is in London," illustrates the TEKING researcher.

Which one to choose?
The change in scenario that means that users increasingly value not having to give up their data in order to use an application means that platforms that have access to more data may lose users to others. Because, as Pierre Bourdin explains, "I can assume that what I share is public, but not the fact that, because I have an application, that application has information about me and can trade with it".

Why choose to do so if we truly value our privacy? The answer is not simple. "There is no totally secure application: that in the world of computers does not exist," answers Bourdin. However, one way to find out how privacy-friendly the application we use is, is to find out how that platform makes money.

"No application is free even if we don't pay for it with money, but all of them, even the simplest, have a cost, because their assembly and maintenance require investment. It may be maintained by an NGO with no intention of economic benefit, but, in general, they need to earn money, because there is an infrastructure for that message we send to reach, and we are talking about many, many millions of euros for applications of this scale," says César Córcoles, who explains that this income can come from different sources, whether from the metadata of its users, from foundations that finance at least part of the maintenance, or from other commercial strategies. "At the moment, WhatsApp is not showing us any advertising, and it seems that in the short term it is not going to do so, but one way it has of getting money is to allow companies to offer us services through WhatsApp," he gives as an example.

Another factor that can make us decide in favor of one or another application is to consider who is behind it. "In Telegram, it's a Russian tycoon called Pavel Durov; in other cases it's big companies like Facebook, and there are also applications like Signal, which maintain different associations related to the defense of freedom. It is important to know if the business model of the application in question is the sale of data or not," advises Pierre Bourdin.