Warning Signal

 

The great Indian migration is on - no not on its highways, but in the cyberspace. WhatsApp - which totally redefined the way we while away our precious time - has now fallen out of favour among the netizens. Its ranking on the Google Play Store has nosedived, while apps like Signal and Telegram are witnessing stratospheric growth in terms of downloads.

The reason: WhatsApp plans to ease its privacy norms to help its parent Facebook mine data of its around 2 billion users across the world, and 400 million of them are from India.

This news set alarm bells and unleashed a flood of conspiracy theories, quite ironically, they are being peddled right on WhatsApp itself. The platform which had acted as a conveyor belt for fake news and tarnished many a reputation has now been hoist to its own petard (my apologies to the Bard).

Its loyal clientele - the WhatsApp uncles and aunties are furiously sending messages, memes and forwards highlighting that privacy khatre mein hai. They opine: If the new norms come into force, we will be like Big Boss participants to the Facebook/WhatsApp bosses.

WhatsApp's famed green icon, which holds a pride of a place on smartphone screens, is on a shaky ground. People may not have uninstalled it yet, but the search for alternatives have begun.

The initial favourite was Telegram, WhatsApp's poor cousin that has been around for seven years, but languishing on the side-lines. Its Russian roots (founder Pavel Durov hails from that country) evokes suspicion as the ghosts of Soviet past makes them wary.

Then some famed influencers like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Edward Snowden began pitching for Signal - an app totally unheard of among most netizens. The Google search for Signal shot up and the customary pleasantry 'Are you on WhatsApp?' soon gave way to 'Are you on Signal', with many mistaking it for traffic signal!

Soon friends and relatives started sending me messages on WhatsApp regarding the link to download Signal. It looked as weird as installing a Pepsi dispensing machine at Coca-Cola headquarters.

After I downloaded Signal from the Google Play Store, I started getting a flurry of notifications whenever my contacts signed up for Signal app. And it also exposed how inefficient I have been in managing my contact list.

More than half the notifications I got; I could not recall who they were. Most of them were added for short term necessities - our friendly neighbourhood cab driver whom I used to patronize before Uber came along, the plumber whom I used to approach while staying in another locality, the packer guy who was in charge while moving house, the car service station guy and then a couple of guys whom I had added to make Google Pay money transfers for want of cash ... the list goes on. As and when they signed up for Signal, I started getting notifications!

Meanwhile, WhatsApp started feeling the jitters. It came out with an ad blitz on the front pages of leading dailies: "WhatsApp cannot see your private messages or hear your calls and neither can Facebook: every private message, photo, video, voice message and document you send your friends, family and co-workers in one-on-one or group chats is protected by end-to-end encryption. It stays between you." It also later postponed the date of the launch of its proposed privacy norms from February to May.

However, this has no way reduced the spate of people signing up for Signal and Telegram. And the notifications on my phone keep coming!

Also Read: Bangalore Short Takes

Telegram As a Museum Piece

Amid a bewildering deluge of smartphone messenger apps and other high tech text messaging services came the news that the state-owned BSNL has decided to mothball its Telegram service from July 15. It will be the last state-owned telegram service in the world to be shuttered.

The public reaction ranged from nostalgia (for those on the wrong side of 40), to a dismissive 'by-the-way-what-is-a-telegram?' shrug by the Instagram generation.

Telecom and IT minister Kapil Sibal sounded triumphal when he  declared that the country will bid the telegram a 'warm farewell' on July 15 and "the last telegram sent should be a museum piece".

The number of telegrams sent in a day in the country had come down to 5,000 from more than 60 million in 1985 and hence not even remotely viable.

In the pre-fax and -STD phone days telegrams played a major role in Government administration, banks and other commercial establishments.

At a personal level telegrams were seen by people as carriers of bad news. They were opened with anxiety, trepidation and prayer. In fact the receivers would often try to size up the expression of the telegram bearer to gauge whether the tidings were happy or sad. Laconic messages such as 'father serious, start immediately', 'grandpa no more' (in this SMS era even this may look too verbose) or news of birth, job posting, wedding wishes - evoked a range of emotions.

In India telegram services were thrown open to public in 1855 and in most Indian languages it came to be known as vernacular equivalent of the word 'wire' - for instance in Hindi it was called taar. By 1856 itself 4,000 plus miles got 'wired', thanks to the foresight of our colonial masters. The telegraph service came in handy for the East India Company and later the British Empire in quick mobilisation of troops to take part in wars or crush rebellions. A beginning was made at the 1857 revolt itself.

In its 150 plus years journey the telegraph system too changed with the times and underwent many technological metamorphosis. It graduated from Morse code to teleprinters and later to world wide web, but since the 1990s it has been a downhill ride. The advent of internet and later mobile phones made telegrams look primitive.

However, in its zeal to bid a 'warm farewell' the government seems to have overlooked some of the problems that may arise in winding up such a long standing service and has not put any alternative systems in place.

First of all the miniscule number of people who still use telegrams have not been provided with any alternative. Many of them may be residing in places which has little internet or mobile phone penetration. They may be illiterate or technologically challenged nor have the wherewithal to own a mobile phone or a computer.

Unlike e-mails or text messages telegrams enjoy legal sanctity and courts accept it as documentary proof. Courts extensively use telegrams for functions such as sending a notice or court order, informing the family of a person who has been arrested and the like. Without telegrams courts and legal fraternity may find it difficult to carry out such vital functions. It is really strange that the policy makers overlooked this important aspect.

Armed forces personnel posted in far flung border areas too have to depend on telegrams to contact their camps while on leave. In case they need to extend their leave telegram is the best option as phone calls are not accepted and letters take time. Without telegrams they even run the risk of facing disciplinary action.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat