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Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

economictimes.indiatimes.com

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Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#61

Post by oska »

npteljes wrote: post #49
oska wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. I really do not agree with this often-made assertion. The main difference between the HN crowd and the general public is that we are more likely to understand how, and how extensively, our privacy is being compromised. We are used to considering computer logs and monitoring as very real (because we work with them / create them); the general public n…

Unfortunately this doesn't explain why my circle of colleagues, at a major tech company, also don't care actively about this stuff. My take: these privacy violations get accepted because there is immediate positive feedback, and the negative stuff is delayed, misattributed, or never felt at all.

I agree with your take.

And I'm not saying that all people who work with IT are going to be protective of their privacy. Just saying that they are more likely to have an informed understanding of the mechanics of computer monitoring/tracking from which to develop possible concerns.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#62

Post by bostik »

Vinnl wrote: post #41
codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

It's only until the end of your post where you say "unless it builds some of those features into its app". That's kind of an important qualifier. Signal has been steadily growing for a while, and while doing so, implementing plenty of features from other competing apps: disappearing messages came, stickers came, group video calling came, etc. I'm not saying they're definitely going to overtake WhatsApp, but they've f…

> unless it builds some of those features

Here's a thing I don't understand - why is everyone obsessed with copycatting?

By aiming for feature parity you, as a business or service, are letting a competitor dictate your roadmap. And what's worse, with features they have already shipped.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#63

Post by uncledave »

codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

I don’t know about that. I’ve seen three local communities here migrate over in the last few days. The reason they did that was due to a couple of vocal members. That includes my wife’s company, the school parents group and the local cycling club all of whom are about as technically aware as a potato (I end up doing most of their out of band IT support)

I suspect it’s a little more complicated though. Some of the WhatsApp groups are quite fatiguing to belong to due to politics and quite frankly unbearable individuals and this allows people to have an excuse to exit them without having half of your contact list trying to get hold of you and drag you back in again.

As for features, absolutely no one I have seen locally here use anything other than basic use cases that signal supports.

Me, I just uninstalled it. I’m going to see if I need to replace it. It appears after all that everyone I need to talk to so far uses iMessage.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#64

Post by jakub_g »

Tweet from Signal themselves with app store screenshots:

https://mobile.twitter.com/signalapp/status/1347693761044701...

Also in France in Play Store, Signal is #1 now. In Trending, Signal is #1 and Telegram #3.

Check for your country on: https://play.google.com/store/apps/top

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#65

Post by bluesilver07 »

bostik wrote: post #59
codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

> Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. I believe in this one you are mistaken. Adblocking has gone from fringe to mainstream in just a few years. Tracker blocking and in general putting actual value on one's data is going through the same, only faster. One piece of data: more than 80% of requests coming on our website disallow tracking. Respecting privacy as a concept has already gone ma…

I would think that the main reason Adblock has become mainstream is because ads are extremely annoying and not because users are very concerned about tracking itself.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#66

Post by mrkramer »

Like codeknight11 said "most people don't care about privacy". Only innovation can displace WhatsApp not privacy policy.

Edit: Innovation can be as well business model that does not involve invading user privacy or in other words privacy friendly business model that does not rely on advertising.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#67

Post by 1_player »

phreack wrote: post #51

In South America practically no one has even heard of Signal. The only known alternative to Whatsapp, which dominates society at all levels, is Telegram. I'm seeing a very minor move to it and it's based on the assumption that it's more secure than Whatsapp. Just did an experiment and downloaded Signal, and while I expected a low list of adopters, out of my 1k+ contact list, literally only one person was on the app.…

No one has ever heard of Signal anywhere, that's the point. It's not like it's very common elsewhere either.

No one had ever heard of WhatsApp once. But now billions of people use it, why?

I mentioned the new WhatsApp TOS to my tech and non-tech friends and I've managed to move all of those I've talked about it, or at least have them install it and get it set up. I still have to find a convincing argument for the least tech oriented people I know, but moving a billion people over to another app is done like that, one friend at a time.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#68

Post by tlarkworthy »

codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

> Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy.

I think the ratio of people who are technically literate is growing. So even if true, its still important. Think of how many non-technical people are trying to push their kids towards coding, in part, due to the unavoidable evidence that techies are making more loot that lawyers and doctors. Its a top profession for middle class now.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#69

Post by higerordermap »

qart wrote: post #25

I have started pushing my friends towards Signal. Let's hope the Indian govt. does not create legal hindrances to Signal, as it is wont to do. Authoritarian tendencies are pretty damn strong out here.

I think they are gonna do that, our government is tending to become authoritarian, it's too early to tell if that's good or bad overall. The reason they have not hindered whatsapp is that unsubstantiated whatsapp forwards actually helped them politically.

I see India becoming more and more similar to Russia, especially since Adityanath is likely next PM candidate, and since opposition is not strong enough, being stuck at 90s with minority appeasement tactics and almost centered on single family, the majority of people will think internet censorship is good for them.

Edit: I am not a "indian liberal" or right winger either, just a neutral look about the state of affairs.

Re: Signal gaining popularity in India after WhatsApp policy changes

#70

Post by GordonS »

oska wrote: post #16
codeknight11 wrote: post #5

Signal won't be able to make even a dent in WhatsApp's empire. WhatsApp isn't just a messaging app. With its stories and statuses, it's a mini social network in and of itself. Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. They care about features. Signal won't be able to compete with WhatsApp unless it builds some of those features into its app. Edit - HackerNews crowd seems to get tunnel visione…

> Beyond the HackerNews crowd, most people don't care about privacy. I really do not agree with this often-made assertion. The main difference between the HN crowd and the general public is that we are more likely to understand how, and how extensively, our privacy is being compromised. We are used to considering computer logs and monitoring as very real (because we work with them / create them); the general public n…

To a point, I agree, but there are still a large number of people that understand how their privacy is being invaded, and simply don't give a shit.

Why? Some don't believe these invasions negatively impact them personally. But I think, largely, it's about misplaced (IMO) trust - they trust Facebook et al not to abuse their privacy or "do anything evil", and perhaps worse, they trust all organs of the government completely and totally. Any suggestion otherwise is waved away as "who cares?", or dismissed as a conspiracy theory (yes, even post-Snowden).

Large sections of the media are certainly part of the problem too (as we are seeing for so many things) - some serious, privacy-related stories are either not covered at all, or covered with pretty blatant, extreme bias.

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