Exactly why you need to uncheck Facebook linking in the latest Whatsapp Terms.

You might be interested in some research I did about Facebook’s TOS last year, how they use your data and the implications to you. These now apply to Whatsapp.

1. Your location, friends, and who you chat with, are recorded.
2. Your location reveals who you spend time with (including in secret), where you spend time (when you leave and arrive at work, if you’re looking for another job, seeing a doctor, your driving speeds, a lot more than you’d think a first.) Insurance companies already use this to (often incorrectly) prevent people from getting insurance. Employers will have access to it, knowing when you check in and leave work, and more.
3. This information is statistically analysed to extreme accuracy, predicting your mental state, health, sexual preferences and political tendencies. This is extrapolated through statistical methods, specifically those that use your contacts similarities to you. Your phone number alone is a big part of this. Whatsapp, the Facebook app and the Facebook Messenger app upload your whole phonebook — names, numbers, everything. Now that Facebook knows everyone you know, it draws conclusions from what it knows about them, increasing the knowledge Facebook has about you.
4. This also hurts your friends privacy, even if they chose to not be on Facebook or Whatsapp. Facebook keeps “shadow accounts” for people who aren’t users. (It knows they exist, their names and friends, because they exist in people’s contact lists on their phones.)
5. Facebook users have agreed to have their financial institutions share personal information with Facebook, and your phone number is a way to identify you to those financial institutions. Sharing it with Facebook allows Facebook to ask your bank and your credit card company to share all your transactions with them.

All of this information, including statistical analyses on your state of health, personal relationships and behaviours, is used for more than advertising. It is leaked through apps (who are “third-parties” and so not covered by the Privacy Policy), and then your personal data sold on to data brokers, and becomes available to future employers, insurance companies, home and foreign governments.

Many times, this information has been revealed to third-parties, like marketing agencies, even when people were unaware of these facts themselves. A typical case is teenagers becoming pregnant, and the algorithm detecting this by connecting seemingly irrelevant behaviour. The data analysis often reveals this before the girl knows herself, and her parents get congratulations messages from retail stores. Not a happy day. This isn’t just about teen pregnancy. Extrapolate this to all the things you’d prefer to keep private about yourself.

Once it’s out there, there’s nothing you can do. Needless to say, the implications are not always positive.

What can you do? Everyone I know is on Whatsapp!

Leaving Whatsapp is the best option. Even if you don’t leave it now, but just invite your friends to other chat apps now, so you’re setting yourself up to be able to leave easily later.

In either case, make sure that when the TOS comes up, “read more” and then uncheck the link to Facebook option.

But be ready — a time will come where they won’t give you the option. Facebook is notorious for slowly changing things, sneaking in changes to the Terms Of Service, and changing your privacy settings back after you’ve changed them. Whatsapp has already removed this option for new users — they are forcing them to link to Facebook.

Now’s the time to get on Telegram chat (open-source and non-profit — meaning there’s no direct profit motive to using your data and legal governance in place to maintain their charter.) Also Signal is worth a look. It’s a private company, so may go the same way, but has strong encryption and is very pro-privacy. Having multiple options to stay in touch is really the best leverage against companies taking advantage of us.

It’s easier than it looks

I left Facebook a few years ago, and will start to leave Whatsapp now. The thing is, it feels like it’ll be bad, but it’s actually okay once you do it. My personal relationships are fine, except for hearing about the occassional big news a while later rather than right away. My close friends and family understood my move, and we shifted. Actually we talk more now — it’s nice. And I never find myself saying, “wait, didn’t you see my pictures of that on Facebook?” I don’t need to trust in Facebook’s algorithm to share my life. Also quite nice.

Remember getting your mom to use email? Or Skype? Or Facebook? It’s the same again. “Hey mom, so turns out they’re using our data in these bad ways now, so time to learn something new again.”

I’m just going to copy-paste this message to all my Whatsapp friends:

Hey, I’m going to leave Whatsapp soon, since they’re starting to link to Facebook and I don’t think the way they use our data is good for us. To stay in touch, please join me on on Telegram. [link to my Telegram profile] (If you want to know more about my decision, check out this post. https://medium.com/p/f7df347bfbb4)

Some people will resist, but just like they resisted before and didn’t get on Facebook or whatever else, they’ll just come around later.

It’s a bit of a pain, but if you take your privacy seriously, or if you think these companies need to stop taking advantage of users like us, then leading the switch is the way to go.

I think it’s necessary and a few of us switching over will start a trend. It always does.