WhatsApp and Facebook’s Ultimatum to Users Reveals a Privacy Disaster
WhatsApp has been sharing data with Facebook for years. But many users didn’t realize it until receiving a message saying that they had to consent to further tracking, or WhatsApp would be deleted.
By Liz O’Sullivan
There’s been a lot of confusion and outrage on social media over an in-app notification that informed WhatsApp users that the messaging app’s privacy terms had changed. Users of the application have no choice but to adopt the new terms, or the software will delete itself on February 8. Because privacy terms are so lengthy, convoluted, and complex in the world of ad tracking, many have assumed that the additional collected information puts their privacy and the security of encrypted personal chats at risk.
In reality, the WhatsApp privacy changes only affect a certain sliver of users’ WhatsApp Business interactions, extending tracking capabilities that are already well in use. The change in terms is less indicative of an end to encrypted privacy on WhatsApp and more a signal of Facebook’s response to the many U.S. antitrust inquiries ahead of them in 2021 — and that the social media giant will continue to shift attention to the markets…
