It will also start testing how businesses, too, can talk to its users, for instance by offering flight or shipping or banking notifications.
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Facebook has also pledged to not interfere with a promise by the co-founders of WhatsApp to respects the privacy of owners and to keep their ads off the messaging platform.
“You don’t have to give us your name and we don’t ask for your email address”, stated Koum.
Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham said in a statement: “We’ve been informed of the changes”.
If the WhatsApp app doesn’t automatically show you the new terms of service on your iPhone, tap Settings Privacy and they should appear. Facebook now owns two mobile messaging apps (the other being Messenger) that boast over one billion users.
Today, we’re updating WhatsApp’s terms and privacy policy for the first time in four years, as part of our plans to test ways for people to communicate with businesses in the months ahead. The company had teased this possibility in January when it did away with subscription fees.
When WhatsApp users are prompted to agree to the new T&Cs in the app, the wording that describes the goal of the setting where they can opt out of sharing data with Facebook is as follows: “Share my WhatsApp account information with Facebook to improve my Facebook ads and products experiences”.
Have you already agreed to sharing the account information? Most people have already given a lot and lot of data to Facebook. However, WhatsApp say encrypted messages exchanged by its billion plus users will stay private. “If an account is disabled for spam or abuse on one service, we will now have the option to do it on multiple services”.
It was announced that users of WhatsApp have been given a short time to opt out of having their information shared with Facebook, although an extra step must be taken of going and unchecking a box. Meaning, if WhatsApp shares your phone number with Facebook, it won’t fill in the phone number field on your profile and make it visible to anyone.
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The two companies claim the new policy will help users find friends and “improve your Facebook ads and products experiences”. Facebook purchased the company a few years back and promised that it would continue to function exactly as it always had, privacy and all.
