In a huge reversal of its previous policies, messaging app WhatsApp has announced that changes have been made to its policies that will allow it to hand over user data to parent company Facebook. WhatsApp has long promised not to employ user data for advertising.
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WhatsApp has kept the policy change a bit hidden, but there are two options. As WhatsApp mentioned earlier this year, it’s exploring ways to let businesses connect with users.
What’s more, the messaging service will also use your data with other sites such as Instagram to “suggest accounts to follow” and “keep spam off their platform”.
The app’s co-founder wrote a blog post at the time to alleviate their concerns, saying “respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible”.
The changes will allow the social-networking giant to see the phone number that people use with their WhatsApp account. If this makes you uncomfortable and you don’t want Facebook to see your WhatsApp data, you need to manually disable the setting on the messaging app.
Asked about how Facebook will use the information, the spokesperson said, “We may use the information on Facebook for things like making suggestions about friends, content or showing relevant offers and ads”. However, WhatsApp say encrypted messages exchanged by its billion plus users will stay private. Facebook matches the list to users with the same information and shows them ads.
WhatsApp is now alerting users to the changed privacy policy update and people have 30 days to decide whether to opt out of their information being used for ad targeting on Facebook, but will not be able to opt out of their data being sharing with the social network.
Don’t worry if you’ve already accepted those new terms, however – you’ve still got 30 days to opt out.
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The opt out is available when users are invited to read the new privacy policy and terms. “No data should be used unless people are informed honestly about how it’s going to be used”.
