While I have never used WhatsApp, Meta‘s messaging app (outside of Facebook Messenger, which is a different kettle of fish), there are many around the world who rely on it to communicate with friends, family, and even business partners and customers. WhatsApp boasts of its end-to-end encryption for user privacy, but the company has shared user data with Facebook and 3rd party providers, including user phone numbers. Now, WhatsApp is starting to include advertising as a way to monetize the service.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led company said ads would be shown based on limited information such as a user’s country or city, language, the channels they follow, and how they interact with any ads they see. If the user has linked the WhatsApp account to Facebook and Instagram, the company uses information from there, as well. This allows it to make a composite user profile across platforms.
ETtech. (2025, June 17). Inside WhatsApp’s ad plan: What happens to privacy? The Economic Times; Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/inside-whatsapps-ad-plan-what-happens-to-privacy/articleshow/121907183.cms
As part of my move away from all Meta products, I strongly encourage WhatsApp users to consider alternative messaging services. I, myself, am looking at the following services. These are all open source and cross platform options, so anybody can sign up and utilize them.
- Element – While this app’s focus is closer to Slack or Microsoft Teams, it is also a great way to communicate one-on-one with end-to-end encryption. Element is a decentralized and federated service, which means it is not a walled garden like WhatsApp. This also ensures that the loss of a single Element host does not lead to a service outage. I have chosen the default matrix.org host for my Element account (@kevingamin:matrix.org).
- Wire – This service is the most like WhatsApp, and it is more than up to the task to serve as a replacement. Also offering end-to-end encryption, Wire also offers the ability to send files securely. Unlike WhatsApp, Wire does not have ads, so it is not beholden to corporate interests. You can find me on Wire at username @kevingamin.
- SimpleX Chat – WhatsApp, Signal, Element, Wire, and other services, SimpleX Chat does not require the use of a username, phone number, or email address to identify your account.
To deliver messages, instead of user IDs used by all other networks, SimpleX uses temporary anonymous pairwise identifiers of message queues, separate for each of your connections — there are no long term identifiers.
SimpleX Chat: private and secure messenger without any user IDs (not even random). (2022). Simplex.chat. https://simplex.chat/#how-simplex-works
As a result, users do not need to register for SimpleX Chat. What’s more, messages self destruct to ensure there is no communication history which, on top of end-to-end encryption, ensures that all communication is private.
Using any or all of these messaging apps will ensure that your communications are private, encrypted, and free from any tech bro billionaire who wants to use your information to line their pockets even more.
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