TELEGRAM, WHATSAPP, SIGNAL, FACEBOOK MESSENGER: WHAT DATA APPS REALLY COLLECT FROM YOU?

Sat 09 January 2021:

WhatsApp, which uses Signal’s encryption technology, laid out fresh terms on Wednesday, asking users to agree to let owner Facebook and its subsidiaries collect user data, including their phone number and location. New policy sparked concerns among netizens with most users saying that they would now prefer a different chatting app.

But how much data does it collect compared to other messaging apps such as Signal, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger? A lot more, it turns out, as shown by the privacy labels of these messaging apps as shown on Apple’s App Store. Both apps owned by Facebook (Messenger and WhatsApp) collect usage data and location details, unlike the other apps.

In contrast, Signal seems to be the most private messaging app and doesn’t collect any user data, as per the privacy details highlighted on the App Store. Perhaps unsurprisingly given this fact, Facebook earlier criticised Apple’s move to display privacy labels.

Signal’s popularity shot up further on Thursday after it was endorsed by Elon Musk, who has one of the most-followed accounts on Twitter, and by the micro-blogging site’s top boss, Jack Dorsey.

More than 100 000 users installed Signal across the app stores of Apple and Google in the last two days, while Telegram picked up nearly 2.2 million downloads, according to data analytics firm Sensor Tower.

You can see these details on the App Store yourself if you have an iPhone. Here’s a detailed breakdown of all the data that these apps collect.

Device ID
User ID
Advertising Data
Purchase History
Coarse Location
Phone Number
Email Address
Contacts
Product Interaction
Crash Data
Performance Data
Other Diagnostic Data
Payment Info
Customer Support
Product Interaction
Other User Content

Facebook Messenger

Purchase History
Other Financial Info
Precise Location
Coarse Location
Physical Address
Email Address
Name
Phone Number
Other User Contact Info
Contacts
Photos or Videos
Gameplay Content
Other User Content
Search History
Browsing History
User ID
Device ID
Product Interaction
Advertising Data
Other Usage Data
Crash Data
Performance Data
Other Diagnostic Data
Other Data Types
Browsing History
Health
Fitness
Payment Info
Photos or Videos
Audio Data
Gameplay Content
Customer Support
Other User Content
Search History
Sensitive Info
iMessage
Email address
Phone number Search history
Device ID

Signal

None. (The only personal data Signal stores is your phone number, and it makes no attempt to link that to your identity.)

Contact Info
Contacts
User ID

It is important to point out that the privacy labels on the App Store are based on the self-submission made by developers to Apple that is not yet manually checked. But nonetheless, companies including Facebook also provide such details in their lengthy privacy policies as well that aren’t read by a large number of their users.

New installs of WhatsApp fell 11% in the first seven days of 2021 compared to the prior week, but that still amounted to an estimated 10.5 million downloads globally, Sensor Tower said.

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