On Wednesday, January 6, Facebook’s WhatsApp informed its users about an update to its terms and privacy policy. The renewed terms completely discard the previously existing boundaries between WhatsApp and its parent company, Facebook, confirming the longstanding concern of many users that their personal data will fuel Facebook’s indulgences.
The updated privacy policy was accompanied by an ultimatum: users could choose to agree that WhatsApp – with more than 2 billion users – share their personal data with Facebook or, alternatively, have their account deleted.
Facebook acquired the fast-growing messaging platform, WhatsApp, in 2014, for almost $ 22 billion – an amount driven by the rise in Facebook’s stock amid the announcement of the deal to the public. It remains Facebook’s largest acquisition to date and one of the largest in Silicon Valley history. For comparison, Facebook spent a paltry $ 1 billion to buy the ubiquitous Instagram photo sharing platform.
With the new messaging platform and its user base in hand, Facebook started to reinforce WhatsApp security. Using an open source encryption methodology developed by Signal, Facebook engineers rewrote WhatsApp’s internal end-to-end encryption. This means that WhatsApp servers cannot see users’ messages, let alone share their content with third parties. After a message is delivered to the intended user, it is deleted from WhatsApp servers, although the messaging application maintains users’ metadata.
According Apple App Store, through its various functions and features, WhatsApp collect The following metadata of users: yours phone model; their phone number; phone operational system; phone strength signal at various times and places; the user timezone; the phone is public IP address; the user frequency of use of the application; their shopping; their status updates; details about group chats; address books; profile pictures; and the profile about information.
The trepidation surrounding WhatsApp’s privacy and security – despite its end-to-end encryption – last resurfaced in 2016, when WhatsApp users first had the option to opt out of sharing their data with Facebook for targeted ads. However, starting this year, WhatsApp’s latest terms and conditions prevent this room for maneuver, with the goal of further streamlining and converging WhatsApp’s social media platform with its father, Facebook.
Before launching its new terms and conditions last December, WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy read: “Respect for your privacy is encoded in our DNA. Since we started WhatsApp, we have aspired to build our services with a set of solid privacy principles in mind. “
Leaving aside its previous privacy concerns, the recently revised WhatsApp agreement sings a very different tune, stating: “In addition to the services offered by Facebook Inc. and Facebook Ireland Ltd, Facebook owns and operates each of the companies listed below , in accordance with their respective terms of service and privacy policies. We may share information about you within our family of companies to facilitate, support and integrate your activities and improve our services.“
The implementation of the new WhatsApp policy sparked a backlash as privacy-conscious users began to migrate to their open source competitor, Signal, a move that was quickly endorsed by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who simply tweeted, “Use Signal”
Use Sign
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021
As noted by Business Insider, in the week following the announcement of the WhatsApp privacy policy update, Signal saw a 4,200% increase in user downloads. While both applications have end-to-end encryption, Signal’s main selling point is its independence from major technology companies – that is, until one of them acquires it. In addition, as noted for the first time in a Reddit thread, in January 9, Signal rose to the top of the App Store download charts in a bunch of countries including the United States, Canada, entire areas of Europe, Asia and South America.
Amid Signal’s rise to the top of Apple’s download charts, Signal’s social media team quickly realized the fact that Facebook, in turn, responded by buying numerous ads on the Apple App Store, promoting its own Messenger app every time. that a search for “Signal” appeared.
Facebook probably feels more comfortable selling ads than buying them, but they’ll do what they need to be the best result when some people search for ‘Signal’ on the App Store.
PS There will never be ads on Signal, because your data belongs to your hands and not ours. pic.twitter.com/waVPcl4wHe
– Sign (@signalapp) January 10, 2021
It was with this growing pressure that, on January 15, WhatsApp announced a delay in approving its revamped privacy policy. The radical changes to the company’s privacy policy, initially planned to take effect on February 8, were postponed until May 15 – although it refused to announce any changes or amendments to the policy plan itself.
As rationalized on the WhatsApp website, the impetus behind sharing information with Facebook is to better serve users: “WhatsApp works and shares information with other Facebook companies to receive services such as infrastructure, technology and systems that help us to provide and improve WhatsApp and to keep WhatsApp and other Facebook companies safe and secure. When we receive services from Facebook companies, the information we share with them is used to help WhatsApp according to our instructions. “
As noted by Bloomberg, in the third quarter of 2020, the vast majority of Facebook’s $ 21.5 billion in revenue came from ads. Currently, WhatsApp, with more than 2 billion users, is totally devoid of ads; in the broader perspective of Facebook, this is a totally lost revenue.
Europe, however, has not been affected by Facebook’s data sharing trends. Mired in reams of strict privacy laws and regulated by GDPR data protection regulations, companies like Facebook face a wide variety of fines on their gross annual revenues – up to 4% – if they violate the European Union’s legal privacy maze legislation. In 2016, as the Seattle Times reported, Facebook violated EU antitrust laws and was fined $ 134 million for providing false and misleading information to regulators amid Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp. At the time, Facebook claimed that it was not possible to combine WhatsApp data with other services offered by its platform.
Facebook and WhatsApp are no exception in the world of technology. In an era of cloud computing and machine learning, data is critical. Facebook intends to collect and organize its own data and that of WhatsApp users exclusively for the purpose of improving its services and better serving its users.
In a digitized era, it is virtually impossible to avoid disclosing data to technology titans. Even something as innocuous as Uber’s delivery of food, provides the respective company with its location and culinary taste – data subsequently aggregated to millions more and placed in analytical models to predict its next meal.
In addition to its services like Gmail or Survey, Google displays its own surveys called Opinion Rewards. Google openly asks for its trends in exchange for currencies to be used in Google’s own market. Their habits, tastes and interests fuel the voracious appetite for data from these technology companies. Data that they feed into their analytical models and use to improve targeted advertising and increase their financial results.
Human nature has an inherent desire for socialization and a natural affinity for immediate convenience. This makes it impossible for most people to avoid the greedy mastery of Silicon Valley’s most attractive services. Facebook and its technology colleagues exploit this human fallibility by providing people with an ostensibly free platform to connect with friends and family, while running a digital farm, designed to collect data. Be it Google, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or any of the countless social media platforms that permeate the internet today, if you’re not paying for the product, you are probably the product.
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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author himself and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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