TOBY SHAPSHAK: Bye-bye WhatsApp, hello Telegram
Facebook has been sued by European regulators for breaching our privacy, and it’s only going to get worse
I’m not a big believer in new year’s resolutions. But this year I have a goal: to move away from WhatsApp and use Telegram instead. As one of the largest messaging networks in the world, WhatsApp — with over 1.5-billion users — has become a convenient way to contact and communicate with just about anyone. But it is owned by Facebook, which has proved it is not able to store personal information without exploiting it, selling it, data-mining it. So why should I trust it with my personal messaging? For a year I’ve resisted doing anything about it, because WhatsApp is the path of least resistance for messaging. Everyone is on it. It’s convenient. And it’s very good software, with some handy features, especially for group communication. It’s like smoking. Everyone knows it’s bad for you, but it took decades of lung cancer and other illnesses to finally convince the world that cigarettes are evil. WhatsApp is the cigarette of the internet. We have to give it up. Why am I being so paranoi...
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