In early January, Facebook announced a notification to WhatsApp users where they would later implement a new privacy policy which is currently causing controversy.

How not, the new privacy policy will require WhatsApp users to agree to share their data with Facebook. This is what makes many WhatsApp users decide to move to other applications.

However, it seems that WhatsApp is quite afraid to see that many people are currently moving to applications like Telegram and Signal which are said to be much safer. As a result, WhatsApp decided to postpone the implementation of this new policy for the time being.

Through its official blog, WhatsApp said that it has decided to postpone the implementation of this privacy policy and give users time to read and understand the content and intent of the new policy.

“None of the accounts will be suspended or deleted on February 8th. We want to explain and clear up misinformation regarding the new policies that WhatApp will implement. We will re-release this option on May 15th,” WhatsApp wrote.

The announcement of WhatsApp’s new privacy policy is arguably quite beneficial for online messaging services such as Telegram to Signal. It is known that currently, Telegram received 25 million new registrants in just 72 hours.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said there was an attempt by Facebook to bring down his application which was being flooded with millions of new users after people left Whatsapp.

The cause of Whatsapp being abandoned by many people is because of its new policy which requires users to share data with Facebook.

Pavel said, based on the information he received, Facebook has a special department to investigate the causes of Telegram’s rise and success as it is today. To note, Telegram has currently been downloaded by more than 500 million people from all over the world.

“With about 500 million users and growing, Telegram has become a major problem for the company Facebook,” Pavel was quoted as saying from his channel on Telegram.

Furthermore, Pavel said he had successfully detected a bot that was ordered to spread inaccurate information about Telegram on social media. According to him, the hoax information was the act of Facebook.

Pavel explained, there are at least three things that don’t make sense with this inaccurate information.

First, “Telegram code is not open-source”. In fact, Pavel said, the instant messaging platform he created had been open-source since 2013.

“Our encryption and APIs are fully documented and have been reviewed by security experts thousands of times. In addition, Telegram is the only messaging app in the world that has a verifiable build for both iOS and Android. As for WhatsApp, they deliberately obfuscate their code, so it is impossible to verify their encryption and privacy, “he said.

Second, “Telegram is Russian”. In fact, as Pavel points out, Telegram does not have servers or offices in Russia. In fact, the service with the paper airplane logo was blocked from 2018 to 2020.

Third, “Telegram is not encrypted”. Pavel said that every conversation that takes place on Telegram has been encrypted since the service was launched. Whereas WhatsApp, called Pavel, was unencrypted for several years before finally following in Telegram’s footsteps.

Cybersecurity Institute, Safety Detective, said about 214 million personal data of users of Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, and other platforms, has been leaked.

This report was issued after Safety Detective examined more than 400 GB of profile data on social media accounts around the world.

As reported by Threat Post, celebrity and influencer data are included in the leaked user data. Allegedly, this data leak came from a misconfigured ElasticSearch database.

Safety Detectives explained that the ElasticSearch database contains personal data information from various social media users, and its servers are open to the public without encryption protection during routine IP address checks.

ElasticSearch itself is a social media management company originating from China, namely SocialArks. In total, this misconfiguration exposed 318 million records.

“Our research team was able to determine that the entire leaked data was ‘taken’ from social media platforms, which is unethical and violates Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn’s terms of service,” researcher Safety Detective said in his official blog.

The leaked personal data in the form of a biography, profile picture, number of followers, location, email address, telephone number, occupation, company name, etc.

The total is 11,651,162 Instagram user profiles; 66,117,839 LinkedIn user profiles; 81,551,567 Facebook user profiles. After this open server was discovered, 55,300,000 Facebook profiles were deleted.

Most of the data leaks are harmless and are used for the purposes of web development to market research.

“However, even if such data is legally obtained, if stored without adequate cybersecurity, massive leaks affecting millions of people could occur. When personal information including telephone numbers, email addresses, and birth information is extracted and/or leaked, criminals are empowered to commit heinous acts including identity theft and financial fraud, “he stressed.