About 810,000 customers globally installed Signal on Sunday, almost 18-fold compared with the download numbers on Jan. 6, the day WhatsApp updated its privacy terms, according to information from investigation firm Apptopia.
WhatsApp’s new privacy terms reserve the correct to share user information, which includes place and telephone quantity, with its parent Facebook Inc and units such as Instagram and Messenger.
Privacy advocates have questioned the move citing Facebook’s track record in handling user information, with quite a few suggesting customers to migrate to platforms such as Telegram and Signal.
To cope with the quantity of new customers, Signal mentioned on Sunday it had added more servers to manage the targeted traffic. Up till lately, the non-profit app was largely employed by journalists and human rights activists seeking for a more safe and encrypted mode of communication.
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WhatsApp, which saw a 7% decline in everyday installs on Sunday compared with Wednesday, was downloaded by almost 1.2 million customers on Jan. 10, according to Apptopia.