Apart from outrage by users who feel betrayed by WhatsApp’s oath to protect user privacy, Facebook may need to worry about an unfriendly visit from the Federal Trade Commission.
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“But by coordinating more with Facebook, we’ll be able to do things like track basic metrics about how often people use our services and better fight spam on WhatsApp”.
Users are particularly upset about the data sharing plans because when Facebook acquired WhatsApp back in 2014, the company said clearly that data would not be shared in this way.
However, WhatsApp claim the new change can actually help users.
“The updated documents also reflect that we’ve joined Facebook and that we’ve recently rolled out many new features, like end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp Calling and messaging tools like WhatsApp for web and desktop”. One of them involves delaying agreeing to the new WhatsApp terms of service.
Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, insists it will not tell advertisers which users interacted with their ads.
Sharing account information with Facebook would allow WhatsApp to offer better friend suggestions and show users more relevant ads on Facebook, according to a blog posted to WhatsApp’s site on Thursday. Go to the settings menu and press the account tab. For users who would rather they don’t, there’s a way to opt out.
Facebook attempts to capitalize on its ownership of WhatsApp, the social chat platform with over one billion users globally. It also says Facebook won’t post phone numbers online or give them out to anyone.
The ICO said because the changes would affect a lot of people it wanted more details about what was being shared.
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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. Organizations do not need to get prior approval from the ICO to change their approaches, but they do need to stay within data protection laws. A key concern is whether there will be compliance with data protection laws.
