I am trying to convince my group to switch from WhatsApp to Signal and we plan to vote on it soon. So, I plan to use the replies in this thread to compile a list of reasons to use as talking points. Preferably, I need something that can be understood on a personal level as some of my friends are deeply cynical and have no concern about escaping techno-feudalism and surveillance.
You might think you don’t have anything to hide right now and you’re fine with a corporation collecting your data. However, you never know when something that is inextricable from your persona might be made illegal and you’d be prosecuted based on the metadata openly available through your messaging platform.
It’s what happened to Jews in Germany
I hate facebook and it’s lizard CEO. Also Signal is open source and private.
The sole fact that it’s open source should be enough to convince anyone, but assuming your family isn’t familiar with the concept you’d have to explain it to them. It can turn into a big conversation pretty quickly. The way I’ve done it (with a close friend group) is with the help of a friend, a respected member of this group who happens to be a developer and militant, so we were two people telling everybody that we need to switch, one of which essentially considered an authority in the matter. If I were you I’d try to find that second person. In numbers, you need fewer arguments to convince people.
Zucc at the time. That they’re American at all now.
I just don’t want to support big corporations anymore. I moved some of my chats to signal with some really nice people but most of my chats and work are still on whatsapp…
Fuck the zuck
One is owned by a US tech corp whose primary income stream is building advertising profiles on users and selling advertising space to businesses while handing data off to authoritarian governments without warrants.
The other is a US non profit where the FBI admitted the only data they can get from them is when the user registered and when they were last online.
and recently they figured out how to use the OS’s notification database to collect some cache and read the notifications Signal sends
fortunately, most OSs now offer granular enough notification controls so they can be set to just notify users when messages are received and nothing more.
On one OS. You can tune Signal not to display the notification contents. Moreover, if you’re on iOS and actually expect privacy, you should probably reflect on your choices a little more.
Realistically iOS is more private than base android at this point
But not Graphene. I’ve yet to hear about this exploit on Android. Curious if it holds true.
They pulled the Signal messages from an iPhone… https://www.forbes.com/sites/larsdaniel/2026/04/10/fbi-pulled-deleted-signal-messages-from-an-iphone-without-breaking-encryption/
… Because the person had message previews in notifs turned on
But only thanks to Apples ability to see and obtain every notification that lands on your phone.
I’ll add this; A stock apple phone can not be made privacy centric.
A base android phone may not be as privacy respecting as apple, but can be made far more privacy respecting then the apple phone could ever possibly be
Sure, but it def depends on the manufacturer
Definitely
Also the pic of him in the Trump inauguration and the pic of him with Epstein if someone needs more pics
This is the correct answer.
I just wish I could have expressed my complex opinions more eloquently.
To add to that, this is what you are to him.
All the reasons the good folks have set out here are great.
I tell my employee: if you don’t have a secure line of communication already installed when you need it, it’s too late. Ask me how I know…
…how do you know?
What’s app is Facebook, what other argument do you need? Unless this you retirement home group chat how the fuck is anyone under 50 still using Facebook.
Everything by meta is spyware.
Signal is nonprofit
Whatsapp = Facebook (Meta)
thats everything you need to know about the striking differences of the two. One actually tries to respect your privacy while the other is exploiting you for using its product
The friend I mentioned actively uses Facebook and Instagram. I have tried to argue against it many times but I am getting exhausted. I just don’t want to be forced to use spyware because the majority said so
You arn’t going to get them to end thier use, so you can only draw a line for yourself and decide not to participate if they don’t go with Signal. It sucks but if they value your presense then they will need to decide to branch out and use another app. And JFK if they use those apps, they can fucking install another and use a better one
Easy and insulting way of finding out how important you are to your friends is to tell them on Whatsapp “I’m done with being forced to use this spyware app, I’m moving to Signal, you can contact me there.” Then maybe reminding them a week later about this, then uninstall Whatsapp.
Either they think you are important enough that they go through the awful trouble of spending 90 seconds of their lives installing the Signal app, or they think thats too much trouble to keep in contact with you.
I did that, found out that my friends didn’t really care too much about me lol. A couple did and thats nice. You don’t need 735 friends anyway. Or at least I dont.
Your friend intentionally doesn’t care. Don’t bother trying convert them. Keep texts casual and be real in person.
Shitbook knowingly contributed to the genocide against the Rohingas in Myanmar. I want nothing to do with a company that is this evil.
Meta
Meta. But perhaps an additional and entirely petty reason: It’s a terrible pun.
I never processed that it was a pun. Goddamn it’s terrible
It’s a…? Oh. Ew.
