While WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger and Instagram will all remain separate, all of Facebook’s services will gain users’ phone numbers via WhatsApp and this can be used to suggest that contacts be added as friends.
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However, the Information Commissioner of the United Kingdom, has said she will look into the changes WhatsApp has made to determine if it’s is illegal in the UK.
The second big change, this is to allow companies to directly send messages to users of the service.
Regulators are “looking into” plans for WhatsApp to share user information with Facebook. Not WhatsApp, not Facebook, nor anyone else.
End-to-end encryption is the next thing that caught our attention, but WhatsApp then pulled us back into Facebook talk about how the firm merges two accounts that people might use for two different things.
We have to tell you that WhatsApp has promised that it will NOT share or sell your mobile phone number with advertisers, but we’re pretty sure that there will be a good amount of users who will not want to risk this.
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. The user info shared with Facebook includes phone numbers and analytical data.
“Even as we coordinate more with Facebook in the months ahead, your encrypted messages stay private and no-one else can read them”.
If you’ve already agreed to the terms of service, you have a 30-day grace period to opt out of sharing.
When presented with WhatsApp’s new terms of service, choose “read” and scroll to the bottom of the page.
The news was received with concern by a lot of users, many of whom liked the app for their anonymity.
“And by connecting your phone number with Facebook’s systems, Facebook can offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads if you have an account with them”, the blog post said.
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Any organisation that breaks the Data Protection Act can be fined up to £500,000 by the ICO.
