On Thursday, WhatsApp announced in a blog post it will begin sharing phone numbers and analytics data of its users with its parent company, Facebook.
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“Facebook and the other companies in the Facebook family also may use information from us to improve your experiences within their services such as making product suggestions (for example, of friends or connections, or of interesting content) and showing relevant offers and ads”, WhatsApp explained in its updated terms and privacy policy.
The company said users would be able to opt out of sharing information with Facebook by following the steps outlined on its website.
WhatsApp added: “Let’s say that you sign up for your local flower shop’s mailing list using the same mobile phone number that you use for your WhatsApp account, and the flower shop decides to advertise on Facebook, you may see their ads on Facebook”.
When WhatsApp was sold two years ago, co-founder Jan Koum insisted that he was satisfied Facebook would continue the company’s tradition of respecting users’ privacy, tech-news site The Verge reported.
The other part of the update will be to enable more targeted advertising for businesses, mainly through an existing Facebook advertising platform called “custom audiences”, which will be able to show more “relevant ads” by mapping Facebook and WhatsApp numbers.
The main difference is that WhatsApp will now share your phone number with Facebook for better ad targeting (on Facebook; WhatsApp remains ad-free) and friend recommendations, as well as improved statistics and spam prevention.
It said that in addition to appointment information and delivery notifications, it would also allow “marketing” messages. So far the apps have remained fairly separate from one another, so the changes today are sure to upset some users.
The change in terms is happening now so WhatsApp can test out ways for users to communicate with businesses, such as getting messages from banks on a transaction or from an airline on a change in flight.
“S$3 o facebook is about get phone numbers from a billion people, give or take. but nbd!”
The company is looking to expand in sectors including transportation, financial services and e-commerce, said a person with first-hand knowledge, who requested anonymity because the plans weren’t final.
On Tuesday, though, French and German lawmakers said that messaging services such as Telegram and WhatsApp that offer end-to-end encryption don’t keep enough information about their users’ activities.
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It’s a long game – and one that Zuckerberg put off for WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger for years, despite interest from investors.
