WhatsApp To Start Sharing Data With Facebook

WhatsApp and Facebook to start sharing user data, is this the end of WhatsApp’s vow to privacy?

Ever since its acquisition in 2014, WhatsApp had managed to successfully evade concerns related to privacy and transparency in its method of work and communication, up until now that is.

Last week though, our faith was dealt a hefty blow when WhatsApp announced that it will begin sharing a limited amount of user data — including individuals’ phone numbers — with parent company Facebook. Read our synopsis on the matter, as well as our advice, here.

This is essentially so as to allow Facebook to map users’ connection across the two services and in turn make better friend suggestions as well as putting up more relevant ads on Facebook. Additional analytics data from WhatsApp will also be shared to track usage metrics and fight spam.

Among the myriad promises that WhatsApp has made is that it won’t sell or share the users’ number with advertisers, but it won’t take a too long an introspective moment, to conclude that putting your phone number amongst a legion of hungry brands isn’t such a great idea perhaps — you’ve still got a chance to stop WhatsApp from handing Facebook this new data if you act fast.

There are two methods, but the first has to be done before you accept the messaging app’s new terms of service. Rather than blindly clicking “Agree”, press the smaller “Read More” option below, and uncheck the box that reads “Share my WhatsApp account information with Facebook…”

The company has also mentioned dabbling with the idea of having the WhatsApp facility available to certain businesses so much so that they can contact the customer in certain instances such as, a bank warning a user about a potentially fraudulent transaction, or notifications from airlines about delayed flights, and says that in order to test the features it needs to update its privacy policy.
WhatsApp says that users will be able to “manage these communications”, and that this won’t lead to third-party banner ads on the service.

Co-founder Jan Koum writing in a blog post at the time of its acquisition in 2014 had said: “Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible”.

Now with the new changes, WhatsApp might find itself on shaky ground — maybe even alienating a few users. WhatsApp’s USP was its unhindered way of communication, where the user was not spending his Data to receive ads. The business model had always been unobtrusive and unprofitable. WhatsApp’s commitment to user privacy has also gotten it into trouble with law enforcement as well on a certain occasions, with a Brazilian court temporarily banning the app in July for refusing to cooperate and handing over messages (it argued it couldn’t if it wanted to).

“Even as we coordinate more with Facebook in the months ahead, your encrypted messages stay private and no one else can read them”, says the company in a blog post. “Not WhatsApp, not Facebook, nor anyone else. We won’t post or share your WhatsApp number with others, including on Facebook, and we still won’t sell, share, or give your phone number to advertisers”.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.