Why did I create this site? I want a place to share how I came to ask parents to choose Signal over WhatsApp for our class groups. More importantly, I want to explain why I think this choice may be important for our children too.
At the school my children attend, each class’s parents typically create a class WhatsApp group to communicate with each other. I understand why parents default to WhatsApp: it’s an app that almost everyone has and uses daily, making it a convenient way to stay in touch with other parents.
However, there are alternatives to WhatsApp, and for some, like me, there are serious privacy concerns about using it. I address the reasons why (and why Signal) in follow-up posts.
In essence, I am concerned about the amount of data apps like WhatsApp collect about us and our children. Meta, the owner of WhatsApp, has a history of continuously pushing the boundaries of privacy.
And in the context of a parent group, this is the key reason why I started asking to switch to Signal: I am concerned my children will show up in Meta’s network of connections (their map of who knows whom) with more personal information than we realise, information our children never consented to share.
What I didn’t realise until I became a parent was that the profile Meta builds about us may affect our children’s privacy more than we think.
When we use WhatsApp for parent groups, we’re telling Meta that we’re connected because of our children. Meta also owns Facebook and Instagram, so they can connect this information across their platforms. This means they’re building profiles not just about us, but about our children too, before our children even choose to join these platforms.
We might not mind this personally, but our children may well care when they’re old enough to understand. Personally these implications only became clear to me by becoming a parent.
If I can make a small difference by choosing Signal over WhatsApp and making more privacy-conscious decisions, that is what I will do. This site shares my knowledge and journey on choosing Signal for parent class groups.