Meta has launched a new ad campaign against Apple's iMessage, claiming WhatsApp offers more privacy and is more secure. WhatsApp was fined €225 million last year for violating the GDPR. The new campaign was announced yesterday by Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook and Instagram.
According to the CEO of Meta, WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption that works between iPhones and Android, as well as within group conversations. Furthermore, Zuckerberg notes that with WhatsApp it is possible to set that all new chat messages disappear after a certain time. He also mentions the possibility to store backups encrypted end-to-end. An optional feature introduced late last year. Zuckerberg concludes his message by stating that these features are not present in iMessage.
The new ad can be seen at the Penn Station in New York, among other places. In addition, WhatsApp has also launched an advertising video that mentions end-to-end communication via the chat app. Zuckerberg has been criticized for the campaign, partly because of the way Facebook handles user data. Last month, Instagram, also part of Meta, was fined 405 million euros for violating the GDPR.