WhatsApp-Facebook Personal Data Sharing Extended to May

On January 06, WhatsApp announced that it was changing its terms and conditions to compel users to agree to share their data with Facebook, its parent company, along with its subsidiaries. Users had until February 08 to agree to the new policy or have their account suspended or deleted, but after receiving huge backlash online, that has now been extended to May 15.

However, Facebook has in effect already had access to a slew of personal information for the last four years, including phone numbers, locations, and usage metadata, such as information on how long and how often you use the app for, your operating system, mobile network, and IP address. In 2016, WhatsApp updated its privacy policy to allow for significantly more data sharing and ad targeting by Facebook through the monetization of the messaging platform.

What is different with the 2021 update is that it mainly concerns users’ interactions with businesses that use the app, particularly in how WhatsApp users’ data will be shared with Facebook Shops. Interactions with Shops by WhatsApp users will enable Facebook to target the ads you see on Facebook and Instagram, further monetizing the app by selling that data to advertisers. There is currently no meaningful way to opt-out other than deleting your account.

In effect, the update creates a new category of information that can now be shared and used for ad targeting, on top of data Facebook already has access to, further eroding the separation between WhatsApp, Facebook, and its subsidiaries, including Instagram and Shops. However, this does not affect end-to-end encryption of messages meaning that WhatsApp doesn’t look at people’s chat messages or listen to their phone calls. Users are still concerned as the app with over 2 billion users is slowly weakening its privacy protection in exchange for profit.

Since the announcement, WhatsApp has seen a massive exodus by users who are opting to use other apps, citing their privacy concerns. Rival competitor, Telegram, gained 25 million new users in three days, surpassing 500 million active users. The messaging app, Signal, gained 17.8 million users in seven days, whilst WhatsApp, on the other hand, experienced a 17% decline in daily installs over the same period.