What’s Up, WhatsApp?

Last week, users of the smartphone messaging app WhatsApp received notification of privacy changes and this news has caused some discomfort across the globe. WhatsApp announced that it will now be sharing user account information with Facebook and its family of apps.
This news is slightly contradictory to statements made by WhatsApp in 2014. When Facebook originally acquired the company for an estimated US$22 billion, they stated ‘WhatsApp will remain autonomous and operate independently’.
In both the United States and the United Kingdom, authorities are reviewing the companies’ new sharing practice to ensure that WhatsApp is being transparent with the public about how their personal data is being shared in order to protect consumers.
WhatsApp wrote in a blog post last week that they are making these changes to shareiming information, claiming: ‘by co-ordinating 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. For example, you might see an ad from a company you already work with, rather than one from someone you’ve never heard of’.
In other words, Facebook would be able to use your phonebook data from WhatsApp to help users find friends they chat with on WhatsApp, but who they haven’t ‘friended’ on Facebook, a WhatsApp spokesperson told ABC News in the United States.
WhatsApp insists that the contents of users’ messages ‘stay private and no-one else can read them. Not WhatsApp, not Facebook, nor anyone else,’ when they’re encrypted, and maintains that banner advertisements will continue to be barred within its app.
Is it possible that Facebook may want to take WhatsApp beyond just messaging? WeChat, the super app with features from messaging, to financial transactions and shopping, may be a strong influence for future WhatsApp capabilities.
For the next 30 days, current WhatsApp users have the ability to opt out of having their information shared with WhatsApp and during this time, all consumers should take the time to read the fine print.
While some individuals are growing more accustomed to data sharing practices, made in the name of ‘creating a better advertising experience for consumers’, it is vital to know at the very least where your data is going.