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/[email protected], c/[email protected] communities, the m/[email protected] magazine and r/signal and r/privacy subreddits.)

  • @[email protected]
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    19 months ago

    Well. I think it depends on how strong your concern and commitment to you and yours family’s privacy is. In my case is kind of the same story, the people doesn’t really care about privacy and WhatsApp is the mainly used messaging app. But I convinced them, here’s how:

    The first thing that’s important to notice is that you had the same mentality as your relatives in some point, but that changed and there was a reason for it. If you find the way to communicate them that reason and you make them feel what you felt when you started to care about your privacy then there are good chances that they not only install Signal to talk to each other but also to actively care about their privacy. This approach could even potentially spread the behavior, that is, they seek to make their close ones with the importance of privacy.

    There might be some issues, specially with the oldest members of your family, because sometimes for them is difficult to adapt to a new tech tool and they might not even be willig to try. However, if you first convince the other members and they support you, it may become easier to get it with the oldest ones.

    For me there’s no price for the privacy in the age we live, so I would not give up and do not so in the task of raising awareness in my acquaintances about the importance of protecting this invaluable treasure. (That’s also why I’m posting this :D).

    So, if you decide that you want to try it, I wish the best of the lucks for you.