WhatsApp’s original business model, of charging users a small yearly subscription fee for an ad-free messaging service, was discontinued after Facebook took over ownership of the service. This is undoubtedly a huge step-change for a service that has typically prided itself on championing user privacy, including completing a rollout of end-to-end encryption across its entire service earlier this year, and continuing to fight requests from authorities to hand over user data.īut once WhatsApp agreed to be acquired by data-mining social network giant Facebook, back in February 2014, the writing was arguably on the wall for any pro-privacy stance.įacebook is in the business of monetizing usage via interest-based advertising fed by harvesting the personal data of its users. And why user consent to a massive privacy shift like this should certainly not default opt people in. This is why, as we’ve said before, T&Cs suck. There is an option to opt out of some of the data sharing (specifically for ad and product purposes) - see lower down this post for more details - although most users will just tap ‘I agree’ to WhatsApp’s new T&Cs without reading them and realizing what they are agreeing to. You can read the full WhatsApp privacy policy here. Two pieces of data which - on a creepiness scale of ‘personal intel you’d rather not hand over to a data-mining tech giant’ - are both right up there. WhatsApp data that will be shared under the new T&Cs includes the phone number a user used to verify their account, and the last time they used the service. WhatsApp will also be sharing the data with the “Facebook family of companies” - so presumably its user data could also be fed to VR firm Oculus Rift, another Fb acquisition, and photo-sharing network Instagram. For example, you might see an ad from a company you already work with, rather than one from someone you’ve never heard of.” “Facebook can offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads if you have an account with them. “y coordinating more with Facebook, we’ll be able to do things like track basic metrics about how often people use our services and better fight spam on WhatsApp,” WhatsApp writes in a blog on the change today. Facebook-owned messaging giant WhatsApp has announced a big change to its privacy policy which, once a user accepts its new T&Cs, will see it start to share some user data with its parent company - including for ad-targeting purposes on the latter service.
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