Four years after Facebook bought WhatsApp for $22 billion, it is formally starting the messaging app on a new mission: bringing in revenue for Facebook.
WhatsApp on Wednesday detailed plans to sell advertisements and charge big companies that want to reach their customers through its service, launching its first major revenue streams as growth at Facebook’s main app is starting to decelerate. The measures are aimed at connecting businesses to the eyeballs of WhatsApp’s user base of roughly 1.5 billion accounts, WhatsApp executives said.
Details may be found at: http://bit.ly/2n1O6rm.
If you are dismayed at Facebook’s plan to convert WhatsApp into another Facebook product that creates even more revenue for the multi-billion dollar corporation, I’d suggest you look into Signal at https://signal.org/. No ads, no spyware, total privacy. It just works.
Think about it…
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- Everything bad about Facebook is bad for the same reason
Categories: Business News, Online Privacy & Security
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Privacy Blog 
From the Stoopid Question Department: Do both parties need to have Signal installed for it to work? I suspect so.
I ask because I live overseas. We use Skype to maintain contact with friends and family. We can Skype to Skype or call their landlines or mobiles. But since MS bought and “improved” it the software has become unreliable so we’re looking for alternatives.
I’m traveling now, will have my sweetie download Signal to see how it works. But being able to use it with non-Signal users, as we can with the dying Skype, would free us from participating in MS’s bumbling ruination of a good and useful service.
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—> Do both parties need to have Signal installed for it to work? I suspect so.
Yes. That is required for encrypted, private conversations using Signal. Both parties involved in the conversation must be using Signal in order to have private, secured communications.
An extra complication is that the Android and Apple iOS (iPhone) versions are slightly different from one another due to restrictions in how the Apple iOS operating software works.
On Android, Signal (optionally) REPLACES the normal text messaging app and handles all text messaging duties. The Android version is capable of sending and receiving encrypted text messages to anyone else who is using Signal but also sends and receives unencrypted text messages to anyone not using Signal. It is not mandatory to replace the Android texting app, however. But that is the option that I chose as it is much simpler to only have one app for all texting, voice, and 2-way video needs. One of my friends with whom I communicate with frequently chose the other option: she has Signal installed as a SECOND text messaging app on her Android phone and it seems to work for her.
When I was looking at Signal for the first time a year or so ago, the Apple iOS version for iPhone was different: it had to be installed as an ADDITIONAL app and was used only to send and receive encrypted text messages with other Signal users. For everyone else, the iPhone owner had to use the normal iPhone text messaging app for unencrypted text messages. I haven’t heard of any changes in that although I also have not been paying much attention to the Apple iOS version. It is possible there have been changes.
In all cases, Android Signal users can communicate with iPhone Signal users without difficulty. For both Android and iPhone users, Signal will also provide encrypted voice conversations and encrypted 2-way video conversations with other Signal users. The encryption method used is unique to Signal so both users must be using the Signal app to enjoy encrypted text, voice, and video.
Another “restriction” is that Signal only works between two users; there is no provision to add a third or more person to the conversation. There are no group chats or videos. I don’t have any need for that so it doesn’t bother me but it might be important to someone else.
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