Facebook has suffered reactions against its plans to implement a new privacy policy that will force users to share their private data with WhatsApp, its messaging app.
Last week, WhatsApp notified its users of updates to its terms of use and privacy policy, which include allowing Facebook and its subsidiaries to collect their data.
The information includes the user’s phone numbers, location, contacts in the calendar and financial transactions made on WhatsApp.
Users can either immediately agree to the changes or file that decision for later. On February 8, however, the messaging app will be inaccessible to those who have not accepted the new rules. WhatsApp has been on Facebook since 2014.
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The changes caused concerns about data collection and privacy.
Questions are being raised about what information WhatsApp collects from its two billion users and what it shares with its sister companies, such as Facebook, Messenger and Instagram.
Mugambi Laibuta, who advises companies on privacy and data protection, tweeted that Whatspp’s new data rules were against the 2019 Kenya Data Protection Act.
Express consent
“If you don’t accept the new terms, you don’t take advantage of the service … This goes against the principle of free consent,” he tweeted. “Ideally, according to the Data Protection Act, we have the right to oppose WhatsApp’s actions … WhatsApp wants to use our data for business purposes. According to Section 37, they must obtain express consent from us, otherwise, they are going against the law. ”
Rival messenger apps, like Telegram, have been sending sarcastic messages at the expense of WhatsApp. Telegram yesterday tweeted a GIF of dancing bearers with an image of the new WhatsApp data rules overlaid on the coffin.
But WhatsApp defended its new policy by saying that the data will be used to personalize advertising.
“Facebook and other companies in the Facebook family can also use our information to improve their experience on their services, such as making product suggestions (for example, from friends or connections, or interesting content) and showing relevant offers and ads,” the company said.
From the moment WhatsApp notified the changes, downloads of Signal, a rival messaging app, have increased, making it the most downloaded app on the App Store.
Signal was developed by one of the creators of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, who sold his app to Facebook in 2014. He left the company in 2017 and was a co-founder of the Signal Foundation, which develops Signal.
WhatsApp tried to clean the air. “It is important to make it clear that this update describes business communication and does not change WhatsApp’s data sharing practices with Facebook.
“It doesn’t affect the way people communicate privately with friends or family, wherever they are in the world,” posted Will Cathcart of WhatsApp on Twitter.