Farewell WhatsApp, I won't miss you

Dear reader,

I’m planning to leave WhatsApp at the end of this month, and switch fully to Signal, a much more private and ethical messaging app. The decision wasn’t easy, and it has taken me years of consideration, but it feels like the right thing to do. The enshittification of WhatsApp has reached a point I can’t ignore anymore, and I don’t want to continue contributing to a messaging culture that is dominated by a privacy-hostile American tech giant.

My journey with WhatsApp began around 2010-2013, and ever since then, it has felt like everyone assumes you’re on WhatsApp and it would be really weird if you weren’t. But I believe the times have changed since then, and even though WhatsApp and especially Meta still dominate most of the world, it is now more acceptable to use alternative platforms, as people have learned more about the problems of WhatsApp and its parent company.

WhatsApp felt like a strict requirement during my university years, when all the group assignments got organized through it. I’m soon finished with my studies, so it feels like the right moment to move on from WhatsApp. Most of the important people in my life have already switched to talking with me on Signal as well.

Issues with WhatsApp

While WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption to encrypt people’s messages, it has many other issues that are worth considering, and some even relate to the encryption.

First, WhatsApp is owned by Meta, an American tech giant, which has been fined billions over the years for its privacy violations. WhatsApp also collects a lot of information about its users. Information that it doesn’t need but is collecting anyway because it can. While WhatsApp uses end-to-end-encryption for messages, it doesn’t extend it to the cloud backups by default, so it is likely that people you talk with in WhatsApp have turned the backups on without encryption. This makes the whole promise of end-to-end-encryption questionable. WhatsApp also doesn’t encrypt the metadata, which leaks a lot of sensitive information, such as who you’re talking to and when. Who are your contacts? In which groups are you in? A former NSA director Michael Hayden has even famously stated how “We kill people based on metadata.”

This year, WhatsApp has also forced AI on its users without an opt-out option, which has already resulted in a privacy breach when the AI tool accidentally exposed the phone number of a random WhatsApp user. Ads have also become a part of WhatsApp this year, and this week, the former head of security sued Meta for its poor handling of WhatsApp’s security. Is this a company you would truly trust to handle your private messages?

Signal is the perfect alternative to combat Meta's monopoly

It is wild how an American multibillion tech company, notorious for its poor privacy practices, has achieved a messenger monopoly in many parts of the world, and people are expected to just accept that. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Every time you send a message through Signal or another privacy-respecting messenger, you are actively contributing to an alternative privacy-respecting messaging culture, where people’s right to privacy is respected.

My move to Signal started around 5 years ago, and little by little I have been able to get the most important people in my life to switch our conversations there. I like Signal because security experts consider its encryption the gold-standard that even other messengers have implemented in their products. But unlike those options, Signal also encrypts the metadata, and is open source, so we know its encryption is solid. Signal is also developed by a non-profit organization, and the app is completely free to use, and you’re not paying with your data. However, you can donate to Signal if you find its mission meaningful.

For quite some time, I have thought that Signal is the nicer app to use when compared to WhatsApp. The interface is clean, and the app is easy to navigate. There are no obnoxious AI chatbots that are forced upon you. The network effect seems like the only reason people are still using WhatsApp. When everyone uses the same app, it becomes the most convenient option to use. It’s also free, but so are most alternatives. If more people used Signal as their default messaging app, WhatsApp would lose its dominant position, and people could choose the apps they want to use instead of feeling like society is forcing them to use certain apps.

Closing words

Private messaging has always been a challenging part of anyone’s privacy journey as you can’t just decide to switch to an alternative, more privacy-respecting platform if you don’t have anyone there to talk to. That’s why you most likely need to convince the people you chat with to move conversations to more privacy-respecting apps. It can be upsetting when some people are so reluctant to do this, while their phones are otherwise full of apps for whatever purpose.

In the privacy community, people often ask best strategies to get people to switch their conversations to Signal, and for me it was never too complicated. I just started asking. Nicely. Now, when I’m completely switching away from WhatsApp, this might even become easier. If you want to chat with me, we can do that on Signal or some other privacy-respecting messaging app. If not, I guess we won’t be chatting online.

Some people might argue that by quitting WhatsApp, I’m forcing others to adapt to my preferences. That may be true to some extent, but I see it differently. Ultimately, this is my personal decision. I will stop using WhatsApp because I want to eliminate all Meta products from my life, and I believe people should have the right to make that choice. Looking at the situation from my perspective, I never wanted to use WhatsApp this long, and in recent years, the situation has felt increasingly frustrating. To live by my values, I needed to make this decision.

One way I decide whether to keep using a service is to ask myself if I would sign up for it today, imagining that I didn’t already have an account. During my university years, I would have answered yes for WhatsApp, but that’s no longer the case. Why should I keep an account that I wouldn’t create today?

Going against the current is never easy, but sometimes we need to be the ones who act so our societies can continue to improve. When I leave WhatsApp, I may lose some convenience from time to time, but I also gain peace of mind by knowing that my data will stay more private from now on. I’m also able to complete my Meta exit, since I have already left Facebook and Instagram. The time has come for me to say farewell to WhatsApp as well. 🌔