Privacy @lemmy.world Sucuk @kbin.social 1 yr. ago

Is it (still) worth trying to switch my family and friends from WhatsApp to Signal? (Read all of it, please.)

This may sound a bit dumb, but eh.

So when that WhatsApp privacy policy change thing happened in early 2021, I tried switching from WhatsApp to Signal and Telegram. Telegram kinda stuck with me since i still get news from there, but Signal... not really because I didn't care about privacy back then. Now, I want to make the switch from WhatsApp to Signal, and I have a few plans on how to do that. But, is it worth it, since most people in Türkiye use Whatsapp and even if I switch my family and friends over to Signal, they'll still use WhatsApp since most people are on there.

So, yeah. Should i try, or is it not worth doing? Let me know, also, thanks in advance!

(Note: Most of my family and friends don't really care about privacy.)

(Note 2: This was also posted in c/privacy@lemmy.ml, r/signal and r/privacy subreddits.)

16 comments

Just ghost them by deleting your account on WhatsApp.
- Thinking of that but that would probably make them (my family and/or friends) mad lol.
  
  I am posting some statuses and changing my profile pic saying "Contact me on Signal".
  
  Yeah if they care about you they will swith. I forced mine as well. (2016 however)
Advocate for your preferred platform, help people install it when you can. Prefer to talk to them in that platform. Push it to your social network slowly. Don't try to move everyone at once. Don't get mad at people who don't want to move. But you will have success.
Not directly relevant for family, but I've also been considering SimpleX Chat. It doesn't require a phone number or username.
I guess it depends on how reluctant they are to change, and how badly you need to use Signal.
it's always worth it, it shows them that there are alternatives and also people like you who care about privacy and freedom from surveillance capitalism
What's the point if they will keep their Whatsapp on the same devices they will use Signal?
- I said this in Reddit, I will say it here too.
  
  "Well,
  
  (Note: Most of my family and friends don't really care about privacy.)
  
  So, it's kiiiiinda about my privacy, since I do NOT feel comfortable using a Meta product.
  
  Because most of my family have FB, FB Messenger, IG and/or (well, of course) WA."
  
  +I want to increase their privacy and security as well.
  
  This does not answer my question.
  
  So you're going to somehow convince them to install SIGNAL. And they will continue to use other data-stealing communicators on the same device. Your data and privacy won't be safe.
- Would still be good if the interest is in having E2E encrypted chats by default and for group chats.
Always promote private messangers. You will be surprised how often you can get others to get onboard. I was able to convince a coworker recently to get Signal
but if you care, why are you still posting on reddit?

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