The recent leakage of 533 million Facebook users’ personal information has exposed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a user of WhatsApp’s rival messaging app, Signal.
The massive leak exposed the victims’ personal data including phone number, address, and personal identifier.
Mark Zuckerberg was not spared from the breach his name, phone number, location, marriage details, birth date, and Facebook user ID were all leaked.
Once his phone number was out, a security researcher, David Walker did some checks on Signal and found that the WhatsApp owner himself uses Signal, which is currently one of the biggest competitors of WhatsApp.
According to the security researcher, it was interesting to find the Zuckerberg was interested in a messaging App that provides end-to-end protection for his private data and he opted for his archival, Signal, which was created by the same people who developed WhatsApp and sold to Zuckerberg.
Signal became popular around the world only after WhatsApp announced a new policy that compels users to link their accounts to their Facebook details by May 15, 2021.
The move is to enable Facebook to make it easier for advertisers to target the over two billion Facebook and WhatsApp customers with adverts that suits their lifestyles.
There was a huge backlash when Facebook first announced the original February 8, 2021 deadline. The tech giant had to postpone the deadline while explaining that the policy only applies to businesses and not individuals.
But industry analysts have argued that businesses deal with individuals so eventually, the policy affects individuals’ data available on business platforms.
Meanwhile, the recent data breach of 533 million Facebook users is being seen as an obvious sign that customers data are not safe with Facebook. On the contrary, Signal has proven to be big on customer data protection and that is why it has become attractive to even Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg’s usage of Signal has proven his billionaire rival, Elon Musk right for openly asking people to abandon WhatsApp for Signal. Musk only gave financial support to Signal to muscle up and compete with WhatsApp.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has also been an avowed critic of Facebook for violating individuals’ privacy. Apple therefore activated a new policy that protects iPhone users from the WhatsApp/Facebook new privacy policy, a move Zuckerberg criticised openly, but later said will work for Facebook.
Meanwhile, several WhatsApp users have also signed on to Signal, Telegram and other messaging App, waiting for the May 15 deadline for the WhatsApp new privacy policy to kick in and they may be out of WhatsApp for good.
