WhatsApp announced in a blog post Thursday that it will begin to share phone numbers and other data on the activity of its one billion users with its parent company Facebook (FB, Tech30), more than two years after getting acquired.
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Not a welcome move!According to some analysts, some people might feel “betrayed” by this move.
That will give the parent company more data with which to make new friend suggestions and another way to target advertising. It would however not “sell, share or give” users’ numbers to advertisers, it added.
More than 1 billion people use WhatsApp around the world to stay connected – it was exactly the kind of reach that prompted Facebook’s eye-popping $19 billion acquisition of the service, the company’s most expensive purchase. If anything, the announcement, titled “Looking ahead for WhatsApp”, extols the benefits – both to Facebook and for its own users – that will follow as a result of the increased coordination. “If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values, we wouldn’t have done it”.
How can one opt out of data sharing?When prompted to accept the updated terms and conditions, tap Read to expand the full text.
WhatsApp, he explained, does not have data on its users birthdays, home addresses or places of work.
“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”. In a small way, it has gone back on what it said it wouldn’t do.
The changes will also help WhatsApp users better communicate with businesses, the company said in a blog post. For instance, an Air Line may reach you to inform you of a delayed flight and a bank may contact you to notify you of fraudulent transactions in your bank account. It said that in addition to appointment information and delivery notifications, it would also allow “marketing” messages. We advise you bookmark this page if you are not sure you will remember the steps above once the update rolls out to your account. Clark-Dickson said users may not mind the service if they can opt in and the messages are useful. (Koum was born in Ukraine; your blogger, in Russia.) “If somebody is a spammer on Facebook, they are most likely also spamming on WhatsApp. and vice versa”, Koum wrote in the email.
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However WhatsApp needs to be careful, a lot of people use this social media only because they don’t get advertisements here. We want to test these features in the next several months, but need to update our terms and privacy policy to do so. Other messaging apps such as China’s WeChat have already enabled business-to-consumer communication to great success, but Clark-Dickson suggested WhatsApp would take a different approach. That seems to be the direction Facebook is taking Messenger.
