Tuesday, 5 November 2019

Spyware row: WhatsApp downloads in India down by a staggering 80%

Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, saw downloads in India rise 63 per cent to 9,600 in the same nine days
WhatsApp
If you use Signal or Telegram, you would have noticed a barrage of notifications informing you of yet another of your contacts joining either one or both the messaging platforms.
Between October 26 and November 3, WhatsApp downloads fell by a staggering 80 per cent in India from the previous nine-day period, according to data sourced from mobile analytics and intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The number between October 17 and 25, the week preceding the WhatsApp-NSO Group issue, was 8.9 million. Between October 26 and November 3, it was 1.8 mn.
However, Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, saw downloads in India rise 63 per cent to 9,600 in the same nine days. Telegram downloads rose 10 per cent to 920,000.
These figures represent unique downloads, defined as “one download per Apple ID or Google account, not including re-installs, installs to multiple devices owned by the same account, or app updates,” according to Sensor Tower.
On October 29, WhatsApp announced it was suing NSO Group for selling its software, Pegasus, which has the ability to compromise a device and get access to all of a target’s data. The software exploited a loophole in WhatsApp’s video calling feature. that could let the buyer get access to a person’s phone or device data.

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