August 26, 2016
What's up with WhatsApp?
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In 2014, Mark Zuckerberg bought the popular messaging platform, “WhatsApp”, in a deal worth more than $19 billion.
With Facebook now its parent company, WhatsApp has since reported that it will begin handing over the phone numbers of its users to Facebook. This development triggered an unsettled public response, especially since WhatsApp has notoriously prided itself on safeguarding and valuing user privacy. In response, WhatsApp contends that Facebook will not post these collected phone numbers online, nor will the phone numbers be shared with any further parties.
So what are the phone numbers being used for? - marketing and targeted advertising. WhatsApp executives have expressed that this will be a way for businesses to communicate with WhatsApp customers. This move will allow companies to send marketing offers or sale notifications to consumers. Also worth noting is that not only will WhatsApp be sharing phone numbers with Facebook, but it will also be handing over device information and characteristics of its smartphone users, such as the type of operating system of each user.
Facebook has reassured that this doesn’t mean an influx of in-app ads will be polluting your WhatsApp; Facebook promises to keep ads off the messaging platform, but not necessarily off of Facebook.
How it works: a “coordination of accounts”. The ads will generate through a Facebook program called “Custom Audiences”, which allows businesses to upload lists of customers and phone numbers that they have collected, and Facebook will match the list to users with the same information, thus showing them the ad.
This seems to go against WhatsApp’s notorious pledge not to involve user data for advertising. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had even publicly warned the company in a 2014 letter it sent to WhatsApp in response to it being acquired by Facebook. The FTC highlighted concerns with potential employment of WhatsApp user data without users’ consent.
On the other hand, WhatsApp continues to be praised for its powerful encryption services, which make it impossible for anyone, including WhatsApp itself, to read the messages of its users that are sent via the messaging platform. WhatsApp maintains that this level of encryption will remain, with neither WhatsApp nor Facebook able to use message content for the purposes of advertising.
Uncomfortable with the new shift in data collection by the WhatsApp and Facebook alliance? Well, WhatsApp users will be able to control, opt-out from, or block these messages at their own preference. In association with its updated Terms and Privacy Policy, WhatsApp is notifying its users and presenting them with the option of opting out of sharing their information with Facebook. Users have up to 30 days accept, opt-out, or stop using the app altogether. Additionally, once accepted, the onus is still on the user to (within 30 days) opt-out of having their information shared with Facebook.
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