The People vs. Whatsapp

Two days ago Whatsapp announced a change in its privacy policy; it will start sharing customer’s data with Facebook, its parent company. People are shocked. People feel betrayed because since its acquisition, Mark Zuckerberg has emphasized that consumer’s privacy is a priority. We should have seen this coming. Why would Facebook invest 19 billion dollars in a company that generates no profit?

Facebook claims that the data shared will benefit customers [and brands] in two ways. First, customers will begin to see more relevant ads [on Facebook]. For brands, this means they will be able to reach a more targeted audience which will [hopefully] generate more conversions. Second, it will make communication more efficient between brands and customers. Since Whatsapp will share phone numbers, brands will be able chat easily with its customers through the platform. Facebook stated that customer’s will benefit the most from this. For instance, a customer can quickly receive a notification of a delayed flight or shipping information of an order.

Even though there is a lot of potential to explore from this change, many brands will be skeptical to jump at this opportunity at first because it can backfire on the them. Many will wait for others to mess up or succeed in order to copy or adjust their strategy. People will quickly get used to it and forget they were angry in the first place. And for those who remain angry, there is little or nothing they can do about it.