Encrypted messaging app Signal had major delays in verifying the phone numbers of new accounts on Thursday due to a sudden increase in people trying to join the platform.
In messages posted from its official Twitter account, the nonprofit Signal Foundation said verification codes were delayed via various mobile networks, and that it cleared the backlog as quickly as possible.
Verification codes are currently delayed with several providers because so many new people are now trying to join Signal (we can barely register our excitement). We work with carriers to resolve this as quickly as possible. Hang in there. – Signal (@signalapp) January 7, 2021
While the problem would have been now solved, the increase in the number of Signal logins followed recent changes to the privacy policy, highlighted by rival messaging platform WhatsApp.
On Wednesday, WhatsApp began rolling out its latest terms and conditions and privacy policy, which allow the popular messaging app to share a significant amount of user data with Facebook. The changes, which will take effect on February 8, 2021, are mandatory and users cannot continue to use WhatsApp unless they accept the terms.
Users who agree to the terms can expect their WhatsApp account registration and phone number, transaction data, service-related information, interaction data, mobile device information, IP address and other data to be shared with Facebook.
Facebook told The edge the updated corporate messaging terms and conditions, and that nothing will change for regular users, but the lack of an opt-out option and the amount of data sharing highlighted by the updated policy have raised privacy concerns.
Last month, WhatsApp publicly protested Apple’s demand that developers provide information about what user data they collect for privacy labels in the App Store, saying that this could put the messaging app at a competitive disadvantage.
At the end of last year, Apple enforced the App Store ‘privacy labels’. For the first time ever, it’s easy to compare how much data an app associates with your account When looking at messaging apps, the contrast is pretty stark pic.twitter.com/Ntw8sELMHX
– Morgan (@morqon) January 5, 2021
The increase in the number of users at Signal was also linked to tweets posted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who recently became the richest person in the world. As noted by The edgeMusk continued the trend of criticizing Facebook with a Twitter post on Wednesday evening, following the attack on the Capitol building.
Musk shared a meme suggesting that the creation of Facebook eventually led to the events of that day, and he followed it up with a tweet suggesting his 41.5 million voters are using ‘Signal’, presumably instead of a Facebook product such as WhatsApp. Musk’s suggestion was later retweeted by Edward Snowden, another prominent Signal fan.
Notably, the Signal Foundation was co-founded and funded by Brian Acton, the former WhatsApp co-founder who left the company after it was bought by Facebook in 2014. Acton later urged his Twitter followers to delete facebook.
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