WhatsApp may retain only 18% users amid privacy row: Survey

WhatsApp has been receiving a lot of flak lately over its new privacy policy and users have been flocking from WhatsApp to other alternative apps like Signal and Telegram.

Though WhatsApp has over 400 million active users, it has been a late entrant in payments and micro-insurance.afp (MINT_PRINT)

A recent survey has revealed that only 18% of users may continue using WhatsApp in India while 36% will reduce their usage drastically. Also, 15 per cent of users are likely to stop using the app completely, amid the ongoing privacy row.

WhatsApp has been receiving a lot of flak lately over its new privacy policy and users have been flocking from WhatsApp to other alternative apps like Signal and Telegram.

According to Mashable, the survey received over 24,000 responses from WhatsApp users based in 244 districts of India. 24% of users said they (along with their groups) are considering a switch to other instant messaging platforms, while 91% of WhatsApp users said that they will not use its payment features.

This action is over the concerns that WhatsApp will share payment and transaction-related data with its parent company Facebook and other third parties.

However, WhatsApp has now extended the deadline of its updated privacy policy to May 15 from its original date which was in February. In the new terms of services, WhatsApp had asked users to agree to allow Facebook and its subsidiaries to collect user data such as including phone numbers, location, etc.

As per Mashable, Signal and Telegram had 24,000 and 1.3 million downloads respectively between January 1 and January 5, leading to growth by 9,483% in the case of Signal and growth by 15% in the case of Telegram. WhatsApp, on the other hand, has witnessed a massive drop in its downloads by 35% over January 6 to January 10.