Brian Acton: Signal Will Not Follow WhatsApp

JAKARTA - Not long ago, the popularity of the Signal application suddenly skyrocketed after WhatsApp issued a new policy and "forced" its users to share data with Facebook. If not, WhatsApp will delete the account.

Many people are openly claiming to switch to messaging applications like Signal. However, Brian Acton, founder of Signal and one of the people who co-founded WhatsApp, also revealed that people don't have to move away from WhatsApp.

Acton added that his application, Signal, is another option. He hopes that later people will use Signal to establish conversations with their closest people, especially family and close friends. While WhatsApp can be used for other purposes.

The Signal boss also said that his company would not follow what WhatsApp was doing.

“I have no desire to do all the things WhatsApp does. My desire is to give choices to people, "said Acton as quoted by Tech Crunch.

As a result, if people are not given a choice, they will be stuck with the policies issued by the company. In early January, WhatsApp rolled out its new policy so that users want to share data with Facebook with a slight "threat", they will delete the accounts of users who do not agree after February 8.

However, after a lot of reports from WhatsApp users complaining and worrying about the effects of the new policy, the company postponed the deletion of accounts for users who did not agree with various data with the parent company Facebook until May 15.

WhatsApp argued that many users were confused because of the information related to their policies. Acton views this by revealing that the new “policy” information being rolled out is indeed somewhat complicated.

According to Acton, WhatsApp wants to incorporate a number of monetization features while hoping to protect the privacy of its users.

"We also love that there's talk about online privacy and digital security, then people are moving to Signal for the answer," said Acton.

Acton said that the business model that Signal is running is not the same as the one WhatsApp is implementing. Signal only relies on revenue from donations in running its business, not through monetization.

One of the criticisms that WhatsApp often receives is that the platform is not sufficient to ward off the spread of false information which results in real action. Tech Crunch questioned what if the same thing happened to Signal. He said that this is a difficult challenge, because technology and platforms have their respective responsibilities.

Both can do a lot, especially when you can't see the content of the conversation. To ward off this incident, Acton gave his message.

“You have to teach children about good digital responsibility. Do not immediately accept newly acquired information. Understand the source. Understand reliable sources. As part of the community, teach each member how it works, ”says Acton, referring to the early days of the internet when email fraud was rampant and over time, people learned how to identify it.