5% of users in India have deleted WhatsApp due to privacy policy: LocalCircles

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, according to the latest survey by India’s leading community social media platform LocalCircles.

In the latest survey, 5% of Indians said they have downloaded alternate apps and started using them actively and also deleted WhatsApp. Further breaking down the poll, 16% said they have downloaded alternate apps and started using them actively while reducing WhatsApp usage.

There were also 34% of users who said they have downloaded alternate apps though not using them actively and still using WhatsApp.

On the other hand, 15% said they are still using WhatsApp and 6% said they have reduced their usage but have not downloaded alternate apps. 18% of WhatsApp users said they plan to continue using WhatsApp the same as before, while 6% said they can’t say.

Signal app is highly focused on users’ privacy, while Telegram is a mix of features and has a private chat option as well.

17,000+ responses were received from citizens across 232 districts of India. 64% of respondents were men while 36% of respondents were women. 52% of respondents were from tier 1, 29% from tier 2, and 19% respondents were from tier 3, 4, and rural districts. The survey was conducted via the LocalCircles platform and all participants have validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate.

According to app analytics firm Sensor Tower, Signal recorded 26.4 million downloads from India between 4 January and 17 January, while Telegram had recorded 9.1 million downloads. There were also 5 million new downloads for WhatsApp during that period.

The latest survey by LocalCircles indicates that while 55% of citizens have downloaded alternate apps, 21% of citizens are actively using them. Many users may have already had the Signal and Telegram apps on their phones before the new WhatsApp policy changes were proposed.

WhatsApp has come out with a clarification and specifically outlined that data of chats with business accounts along with user’s profile details, image, contact information will be shared with Facebook, Instagram and could be shared with third-party service providers.

This in essence means that if a customer gets a WhatsApp Business Chat update for a flight booking they made on a website or app and the transaction details and invoice was shared on WhatsApp by the website or app, that data can be utilised by their competitor via Facebook advertising and the user could get unsolicited offers for hotels and taxi services on their Facebook, Instagram and possibly even their email, SMS and WhatsApp.

Given this background, the survey asked citizens if going forward they plan to continue chatting with Whatsapp Business accounts, the majority of 75% users said “No”. Only 13% of citizens said they will not use payment but may use the business chat. Only 1% said they will use both business chat and payments. There were 7% who voted “can’t say”. In the last survey, 67% of citizens said “No”. Only 17% voted “Yes”, while 16% said they haven’t decided yet.

Per aggregate responses from citizens, the percentage of users who are likely to not use WhatsApp Pay if the instant messaging app decides to implement the policy come May 15th is at 92%.

Similarly, the percentage of users who are likely to not use WhatsApp Business Accounts if the instant messaging app decides to implement the policy come May 15th has increased by 12%, from 67% in the January 12th survey to 79% in the January 28th survey.