Facebook to collect more personal data from WhatsApp's users
According to a recent modification in WhatsApp's terms of service, the chat app will now share more of its users' personal data with its parent company, Facebook. One of the main things will be the sharing of the phone numbers database, which will allow Facebook to match each user's social network account with their WhatsApp account. Additionally, the two services will also trade data that will allow them to serve better targeted advertisements.
In the blog post that announced this change, WhatsApp's spokesperson wrote: "[B]y 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." While I understand that Facebook spent $19 billion for WhatsApp, so it can basically do whatever it wants, this still seems a bit abusive.
If you're not the kind of person who simply clicks on accept and agrees, you will be able to partially opt out of at least a few of these stipulations. Basically, WhatsApp privacy policy allows you to disagree with sharing of information for ad targeting and product-related purposes, but the data itself will still be collected and shared, it will just be used for "other purposes". Moreover, even users who already accepted the revised terms of service have 30 days to change their mind and opt out of the data sharing.
In case you're a fan of the service, you might also enjoy reading about these "6 WhatsApp features you probably didn't know about".
