WhatsApp Will Start Sharing User Info With Facebook

Well that was fast.

Facebook also intends to use the information to make better friend suggestions and include that information with all the data it has already collected to better tailor advertisements to users’ interests. “We are looking into this”.

Any organisation that breaks the Data Protection Act can be fined up to £500,000 by the ICO. Some might consider it’ll give them a better service, others may be concerned by the lack of control.

The non-departmental body will ensure that companies such as WhatsApp are transparent about their use of personal data and stay within the bounds of the law, she added.

The ICO, meanwhile, said it was looking into the changes.

Ever since Facebook bought messaging service WhatsApp in 2014, there’s been a voluntary wall of separation between the two, with WhatsApp pledging not to share personal info with its new parent.

“The question that any regulator will be asking is whether or not the new policies and the way in which you opt into them – or opt out of them – is expressed in clear to the average user”, he said.

“When you and the people you message are using the latest version of WhatsApp, your messages are encrypted by default, which means you’re the only people who can read them”, the post continued. The companies recently announced a new initiative to share user data, igniting user complaints and skepticism over the activity’s legality within FTC guidelines. (But will just not be publicly posted onto their own Facebook page.) So there certainly looks to be some room for confusion, although it remains to be seen whether the ICO will view the phrasing as troublingly opaque or not.

The company insists that sharing your number with Facebook won’t result in third party advertisers getting a hold your details, but if you want to be cautious, then here’s how you can stop the process all together.

“But once WhatsApp agreed to be acquired by data-mining social network giant Facebook, back in February 2014, the writing was arguably on the wall for any pro-privacy stance”. “If there are complaints that users have been misled this could lead to action from regulators – and not just in the privacy space but also fair trade regulators like trading standards or CMA in the United Kingdom or the FTC in the US”, Armstrong concluded.