WhatsApp’s New Privacy Policy Mandates Data Sharing With Facebook

Signal’s downloads have gone up ever since the Facebook-owned WhatsApp rolled out a new privacy policy for its users that allows it to share their private data with Facebook. Users have until February 8, 2020, to accept the update or leave the texting app altogether.

Popular messaging and VoIP service WhatsApp this week made changes to its policy, allowing it to share user data with other Facebook companies. WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook since February 2014, had at the time of its acquisition assured its users of its commitment to privacy by stating that “partnership with Facebook will not compromise the vision that brought us to this point.”

And if users do not like the new policy update, too bad. Users can either allow WhatsApp to share the data with Facebook or quit using the messaging service altogether. Users have until February 8 to accept the update that keeps popping up on the screen once everyday.

In December 2020, Apple mandated all third-party app developers and vendors to list the complete information they collect from users. WhatsApp listed purchases, user content, financial information, identifiers, location, usage data, contacts, and diagnostics from users.

Going forward, WhatsApp will collect and share the followingOpens a new window if or when users accept the new terms:

• Usage and Log Information: Diagnostic and performance information.
• Device And Connection Information: Hardware model, operating system information, battery level, signal strength, app version, browser information, mobile network, connection information (including phone number, mobile operator or ISP), language and time zone, IP address, device operations information, and identifiers.
• Location Information and Cookies: Facebook collects location even without GPS activated through IP addresses and other information like phone number area codes.
• User-Provided Info: Account information, messages, contacts, status info, transactions and payments data, customer support information.
• Information provided by third parties.

See Also: Are Privacy Advocates the New Change Agents in Post-COVID Era?Opens a new window

Then and Now

“Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible,” reads a WhatsApp blog postOpens a new window from March 2014. “If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values, we wouldn’t have done it. Instead, we are forming a partnership that would allow us to continue operating independently and autonomously. Our fundamental values and beliefs will not change. Our principles will not change.”

Apparently, they have.

The first sign of this change was felt when Facebook updated WhatsApp’s privacy policy to share user data with Facebook for ad-targeting. “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. 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 company stated. But this was an opt-out.

Hey, remember when Facebook bought WhatsApp and swore they wouldn’t do this? Surprise!

— Eva (@evacide) January 7, 2021Opens a new window

Then WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton left the company in September 2017 due to disputes with Facebook over monetizing the messaging app. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum followed soon after in April 2018. Acton even went on to say, almost regretfully, to ForbesOpens a new window , “I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.”

Facebook, whose primary mode of minting profits is through ad-sales driven on private user data, didn’t just buy WhatsApp to square up to Google and others in the messaging space, one of the most lucrative areas in mobile computing. Looking back, it’s now clear that the company always planned to leverage sensitive user data.

Facebook says the data helps them “operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market” their services as part of a close-knit experience. While that’s all well and good, it still raises concerns about the possibility of data misuse in yet another political and ethical scandal such as Cambridge Analytica.

The change doesn’t apply to the European Union since it comes under GDPR, although all eyes are on the 27-nation bloc. David HanssonOpens a new window , founder and CTO at Basecamp and HEY, tweetedOpens a new window , “When you have a messaging monopoly [in Europe and elsewhere], they let you do it. Whatcha gonna do @vestager?”

See Also: Facebook Slapped With $6.1M Fine by South Korean Watchdog

WhatsApp Alternatives

Use Signal

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021Opens a new window

The search for an alternative to WhatsApp has already started. It seems Signal, a messenger with strong encryption and acceptable privacy policy, is emerging on top. Hordes of users are already flocking to Signal, so much so that its verification codes were delayed for over an hour yesterday.

Verification codes are currently delayed across several providers because so many new people are trying to join Signal right now (we can barely register our excitement). We are working with carriers to resolve this as quickly as possible. Hang in there.

— Signal (@signalapp) January 7, 2021Opens a new window

For comparison on the data linked to users on Signal, iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, refer to the tweet below.

Data linked to you.. Signal, IMessage, Whatsapp, Facebook messenger pic.twitter.com/hWcy6Oo9wnOpens a new window

— Carlos Cota (@TylerDurdenMx) January 8, 2021Opens a new window

Telegram is another contender that can benefit from WhatsApp’s loss.

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