Mandatory WhatsApp Privacy Policy Update Allows User Data to be Shared With Facebook

[TimFL1]

That’s because their carriers have price-gouged them for SMS messages and they’ve had to outsource their message infrastructure to an app that Facebook provides “free” (aka in exchange for an all you can eat buffet of data).

Fortunately, US carriers never quite got around to making SMS super expensive so we don’t have to do that.

That‘s just a tiny reason of why most people moved away from SMS here. The biggest reason is the fact that SMS is a piece of **** technology with an abomination brother called MMS. People jumped on the WhatsApp bandwagon right away cause it was something new and offered more than SMS did. WhatsApp sadly had the first mover advantage so iMessage had not an ounce of chance when it was introduced with iOS 5. That and the fact that iMessage is Apple only and Apple has no real market power outside of the US.

Even if carriers suddenly decided to wave all fees for SMS, no one in their right mind would revert to such an ancient protocol that isn‘t even encrypted in transit.

 

[ignatius345]

Sorry what?? More insular American rubbish being spouted here. In Europe we have had unlimited texts (as in 10,000 per MONTH) for YEARS.

It's a big old world out there.

So why do you use WhatsApp?

 

[Wando64]

Given that Whatsapp messages are end to end encrypted, I am unsure as to what data would be shared with Facebook other than your list of contacts and how many times, and when, you have called/messaged them and they have called/messaged you.

 

[ignatius345]

When it comes to cellular services US (or NA for that matter) was always behind. SMS is old and limited which is not the same as other data centric platforms like whatsapp etc.
This new rule sucks so I guess a lot will move to telegram etc.
Or iMessage but that is limited to iOS which not everyone has. We shall see

Honestly, I could give a crap about SMS’s limitations. All I know is I have one app (Messages) which I can use to communicate to everyone and I don’t need to touch Facebook.

 

[Ursadorable]

The part that annoys me the most is that they create shadow profiles for everyone on your contact list.

I never gave my permission for this, and those that do use WhatsApp never had my permission to share my info with Facebook. It's near impossible to get WhatsApp to stop pestering for access to your contact list. The people that do use it blindly accept scraping of their contact list. It only takes a few friends for Facebook to build a web of your friends via other people's contact lists.

One can argue it's just your name and phone number, but some people keep quite detailed contact lists, like birthdate, home address, work address, etc.

 

[Wordman]

Signal. Not sure why you’re specifying the UK though.

Because I live in the UK. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Schnegg]

Too bad, I was hoping for an option to opt out of shadow profiling. I don't use any Facebook services and once paid for Whatsapp before it got acquired.

 

[Wando64]

Honestly, I could give a crap about SMS’s limitations. All I know is I have one app (Messages) which I can use to communicate to everyone and I don’t need to touch Facebook.

Whatsapp allows users to send end to end encrypted multimedia messages as well as conduct encrypted video and audio calls between different phone platforms and OSs, plus the encrypted transfer of files, including multimedia.
If you can live without any of that, you certainly don't need Whatsapp.

 

[ignatius345]

Another case of "since we're the land of the free I'm just going to assume a narrative that we are number one"? Like seriously, the whole damn world has pretty much moved on from regular SMS whenever they got the chance to do so; no matter if we get SMS for free for not (and many of us do; free sms and free calls, basically we're just paying for the amount of data that we want).

All I know is that every time I’ve traveled every single European or South American I’ve talked to has wanted to use WhatsApp and I thought, “gross, why the hell do you do this?” I get that SMS is not great, but neither is outsourcing all your communications to Facebook.

 

[ignatius345]

Whatsapp allows users to send end to end encrypted multimedia messages as well as conduct encrypted video and audio calls between different phone platforms and OSs, plus the encrypted transfer of files, including multimedia.
If you can live without any of that, you certainly don't need Whatsapp.

There are other apps, as pointed out by others here, that provide much of the same. You don’t need Facebook for this.

 

[Wando64]

All I know is that every time I’ve traveled every single European or South American I’ve talked to has wanted to use WhatsApp and I thought, “gross, why the hell do you do this?” I get that SMS is not great, but neither is outsourcing all your communications to Facebook.

Sorry for piling on, but which part of End-to-end encryption is so difficult to understand?

 

[Thomba]

Am trying a long time already to push people to move to Signal, but no one is following. Sadly....
And being on a messaging app on your own makes no sense. Kind of being forced to keep using whatsapp because everybody in the Netherlands is using it.

 

[macintoshmac]

We all knew the day was coming. It’s why I stopped using WhatsApp the day I became aware of news of the company being bought by Facebook, years ago.

Relatives still grumble about my absence from WhatsApp, I tell them to find me on Signal or Telegram.

 

[Thomba]

There are other apps, as pointed out by others here, that provide much of the same. You don’t need Facebook for this.

Agreed. But if no one else uses these other apps, you kinda have a problem. Especially when the kids’ team messages are being sent in these whatsapp groups there is just no escaping the lizard

 

[ignatius345]

Sorry for piling on, but which part of End-to-end encryption is so difficult to understand?

What part of Facebook collecting all kinds of metadata and profiling every single aspect of your communication is so difficult to understand? It’s hilarious to me how many people are willing to go to bat for Facebook being some kind of great company here. Wake the **** up.

 

[Wando64]

There are other apps, as pointed out by others here, that provide much of the same.

In Europe, none as popularly used as WhatsApp. It is simply ubiquitous.

 

[LiE_]

Anyone in the UK know of a good WhatsApp alternative?

There are lots e.g. Telegram, Signal. It's pointless using them really unless everyone gets onboard. My wife for example is on Android and sends me all sorts of media messages daily on WhatsApp.

I suppose we have to start somewhere, slowly moving off. If enough people do it, it will start to swing.

 

[Doodah7]

So why do you use WhatsApp?

Who said I did?

 

[Wando64]

What part of Facebook collecting all kinds of metadata and profiling every single aspect of your communication is so difficult to understand? It’s hilarious to me how many people are willing to go to bat for Facebook being some kind of great company here. Wake the **** up.

Back to my original question.

What data can you collect when all of your communications are end to end encrypted apart from your list of contacts and how many times you have called them?

 

[LiE_]

What part of Facebook collecting all kinds of metadata and profiling every single aspect of your communication is so difficult to understand? It’s hilarious to me how many people are willing to go to bat for Facebook being some kind of great company here. Wake the **** up.

Pretty much everyone knows what FB is up to, they just choose to ignore it. The reason being, it makes zero difference to day to day life.

 

[hasanahmad]

its almost like Facebook wants to kill WhatsApp

 

[Wando64]

What part of Facebook collecting all kinds of metadata and profiling every single aspect of your communication is so difficult to understand? It’s hilarious to me how many people are willing to go to bat for Facebook being some kind of great company here. Wake the **** up.

....oh, and by the way, where on earth did you hear me praising Facebook at any time ever? (my profile is open for scrutiny if you are so inclined)

Calm the **** down.

 

[GamerZer0]

iMessage or Apple Messages should be released on everything from Android to MS-DOS. We don't need no stinkin' WhatsApp. I assumed I was already "naked" in the digital/social world... now this 🙃

 

[TimFL1]

The part that annoys me the most is that they create shadow profiles for everyone on your contact list.

I never gave my permission for this, and those that do use WhatsApp never had my permission to share my info with Facebook. It's near impossible to get WhatsApp to stop pestering for access to your contact list. The people that do use it blindly accept scraping of their contact list. It only takes a few friends for Facebook to build a web of your friends via other people's contact lists.

One can argue it's just your name and phone number, but some people keep quite detailed contact lists, like birthdate, home address, work address, etc.

That‘s why I spam Apple with a contacts privacy revamp feedback every major iOS release (differentiate between read only and read/write + „selected contacts“ option, a secondary option that allows you to specify which fields the app gets access to and so on).

 

[ignatius345]

Back to my original question.

What data can you collect when all of your communications are end to end encrypted apart from your list of contacts and how many times you have called them?

Go read up on it. Your location frequency, every single contact you communicate with, who they communicate with, how often, where, when, what they bought, what websites they’ve visited. They build elaborate profiles on every single damn person who uses their services and on people who don’t. Come on man. We know enough about tracking at this point to realize they can harvest an incredible amount of data on you and everyone you communicate with without ever having access to your actual conversations. But yeah, if you wanna pretend everything is private and cozy, go right ahead.