This is one of the hot topics in early 2021. At the beginning of January, WhatsApp announced a major update to these general terms of use. Now the instant messaging service will be able to share certain data with its parent company, Facebook. The icing on the cake is that this new policy is impossible to refuse.
Public reaction following this announcement, which had the effect of causing a massive user migration to the competition and specifically to the Signal app. WhatsApp has determined in detail the data it will transfer to Facebook to end this wave of exits. In reality, it’s just about your purchases with companies.
In the process, WhatsApp delayed the entry into force of these new terms of use until May 15, 2021. Initially, data sharing with Facebook was to begin on February 8. In a blog post published on January 15, 2021, Facebook tried to reassure users by reminding this. end-to-end encryption will not be lost, and that social network like WhatsApp will never be able to access their conversations.
Why enforce this new policy?
However, users’ concerns do not revolve around encryption. According to WhatsApp’s statements, this data sharing concerns only transactions with companies. Very few users still do their shopping on WhatsApp. In fact, and as our colleagues at Android Authority have rightly pointed out, Why are you forcing all WhatsApp users to share data from a service they may never use?
According to Android Authority, Facebook collects the following from conversations between you and a company on WhatsApp:
- phone number
- your device ID
- GPS data
- transaction data
- interaction with the product
- User credentials
It is logically assumed that this information will be used to: Improve Facebook ad targeting, specifically targeting ads to products that interest you, your geographic location, etc. by optimizing accordingly. Thanks to these new terms of use in WhatsApp, Facebook offers itself an additional data source.
Another important point is that Facebook can also get your phone number. Important data to connect your WhatsApp account to Facebook and Instagram. As a reminder, when Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014, it promised not to collect users’ phone information. After a long investigation, the European Commission found that Facebook lied about it. The social network later had to pay a fine of 110 million euros.
Source : Android Authority & Facebook
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