5% users in India delete WhatsApp; 22% pare usage on policy change: Survey

WhatsApp's latest policy seems to have prompted aware users or early adopters to shift to alternative instant messaging platforms such as Signal and Telegram

About 5 per cent Indians have deleted Whatsapp and another 22 per cent have reduced usage drastically after the Facebook-owned messaging giant recently revealed plans to update its privacy policy, according to the community platform LocalCircles.

Three weeks since WhatsApp came out with the new privacy policy, LocalCircles has conducted another survey to understand if people are actually leaving the platform and migrating. 

Leaving a social network is not easy because the whole network or at least 75 per cent of the members of a group or 75 pent of an individual’s contacts must move to an alternate platform before they fully switch.

WhatsApp's latest policy seems to have led a section of users, mostly aware users or early adopters shifting to alternative instant messaging platforms, like Signal and Telegram. Signal app is highly focused on users’ privacy, while Telegram is a mix of features and has a private chat option as well.

In the latest survey, 5 per cent of Indians said they have downloaded alternate apps and started using them actively and also deleted WhatsApp. Further breaking down the poll, 16 per cent said they have downloaded alternate apps and started using them actively while reducing Whatsapp usage. There were also 34 per cent of users who said they have downloaded alternate apps though they are not using them actively. 

On the other hand, 15 per cent said they are still using Whatsapp and 6 per cent said they have reduced its usage but they have not downloaded alternate apps.  About 18 per cent of Whatsapp users said they plan to continue using WhatsApp same as before.

The survey result indicated that 67 per cent of Indians are still actively using Whatsapp. There were also 22 per cent of citizens who said that they have reduced usage of the platform. Only 5 per cent said they have deleted it.

Over 17,000 responses were received from citizens across 232 districts of India for the survey. About 64 per cent respondents were men and 36 per cent respondents were women.

India is the biggest user base for Facebook, with around 328 million users, and WhatsApp has 400 million users here, also the highest.

Earlier this month LocalCircles survey released on January 13 had highlighted citizens’ response on how they will use WhatsApp, along with its Whatsapp Business and Whatsapp Pay features, if it implements the new privacy policy. In the survey that received 24,000 responses from across the country, 15 per cent users indicated that they will stop using WhatsApp and move to other platforms. 

About 67 per cent of users said they will discontinue business chat if it shares user and transaction information exchanged on WhatsApp business accounts with Facebook and third parties. There were also 91 per cent users who said they will not use its payment features if it shares payment and transaction information.

LocalCircles said Whatsapp’s latest privacy policy requires users to agree to share of their data of chat with business accounts, payments and transaction information with its parent company Facebook and third parties. This has resulted in a huge public outcry. 

Following the backlash and to prevent the migration of users to alternate platforms, the instant messaging app postponed its deadline to implement this policy in India from February 8  to May 15, 2021.

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology also wrote to WhatsApp asking them to withdraw the proposed policy changes and sharing of user data. LocalCirlces said the clarifications by WhatsApp highlight how it will not access or share private chats between consumers and only the chats with business accounts. 

LocalCircles said reports citing experts suggest that WhatsApp will access information such as OS, phone model, screen resolution, IP addresses, language, location, browsing history – but, not the private conversation between users or hear their calls as it is end-to-end encrypted platform.

According to app analytics firm Sensor Tower, Signal recorded 26.4 million downloads from India between January 4 and January 17. Telegram had recorded 9.1 million downloads. There were also 5 million new downloads for WhatsApp during that period. The latest survey by LocalCircles indicated that while 55 per cent of citizens have downloaded alternate apps, 21 per cent of citizens are actively using WhatsApp. 

The survey also mentioned that 75 per cent or more Whatsapp users in India will completely stop using business chats and payments if the instant messaging app were to implement its new privacy policy.