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Mandatory WhatsApp Privacy Policy Update Allows User Data to be Shared With Facebook
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Unlimited messaging has been a core part of UK price plans for years now. It’s not about the cost its about richness of features vs. SMS - group chats, calls, gifs, etc....
but WhatsApp contacts is your phone list which every other app on your phone already has and thus Facebook even from outside has access to. WhatsApp doesn't have "profiles" and who you talk to is redundant as that's part of end to end encryption.
No. E2EE only covers a messages content (e.g. image, text). It does NOT cover when that message was sent, to whom, read state etc. WhatsApp absolutely knows that you sent 300 texts to your friend last night and the average time between texts was 10 seconds, with your friend talking to 3 more people at the same time and sharing 10 of your messages to them. They also know how often you open a chat conversation of your crush without sending a message.
Meta-data is power and as valuable as the content of a chat message.
Fair point. I had always heard that high SMS fees originally pushed a lot of worldwide users onto WhatsApp — or that WhatsApp swooped in just at the moment when SMS messages were bumping into their big limitations.
Given all that we know about Facebook at this point though, I’m always a bit shocked that people continue to advocate for using it.
This is most likely related to the shower thought of Zuckerberg from 2019, where he revealed that they'd eventually merge all 3 platforms (FB Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram) to be one big messaging ecosystem. That way you can text someone using Instagram from your WhatsApp.
but do most users even care unless its the CONTENT? day to day users use apps which share more than meta and even their content for ads like gmail for example. 90% of folks who complain about Facebook and ads use Hotmail or Gmail both of which have their content ready for adverts
Gah! I will stop using WhatsApp and delete my Facebook profile! Just to be sure I will smash my phone with a hammer! Also I will be sending a very angry e-mail to Mister Zuckerberg using Gmail and then order a new phone from Amazon. Noone's getting my data! Noone! HAHAHA!
I do not know why can't Apple ensure that apps require user consent for such collection as browser history! Why would Apple even allow browser history data be available to other apps in the first place? Entities like Facebook are only taking what Apple provides them means to take. Just as no app can access battery data and such other data on the iPhone, so could apps be restricted to access anything else they do not need access to for providing the user functionality they say they provide. I could be wrong, here.
Since WhatsApp's account is based on your phone number, but Facebook is an unrelated email-based account, are the two now going to be linked? And if so, what is the point in WhatsApp as it is basically the same as Facebook Messenger apart from the account?
Most users don't even care about any form of encryption as evident by the US with their iMessage / SMS duo. People in my country are heavily "anti-Facebook" yet they don't care that WhatsApp has been in FBs possession for over half a decade already.
Chances are, the majority of their target audience doesn't understand what meta-data is anyways so no, barely anyone cares. The few that do have either switched over to Signal or still drags along WhatsApp cause there barrier of entry for a new texting app / ecosystem is too big.
Chances are they already have a map of your phone number to your FB account anyways. Don't underestimate a crowd-sourced user database with all the contact lists they get pushed daily. Only requires a handful of users with your details to create a full profile to trace you.
That's also why I never really advise that you should delete your Facebook account. They've introduced a privacy tool a while ago, that lets you check out the info they collected on you from websites etc. (e.g. the ones that have a like button script) and request "deletion". If you delete your account, they create a shadow profile of you that you have no control of (you gift them your data essentially, with no way of checking it out or requesting removal, cause it's a shadow profile).
WhatsApp is a terrible multi-platform service! The iPad app is abysmal, and the macOS app not much better. Having to reconnect via QR code all the time is a much worse experience than Facebook Messenger or Telegram, for example.
Well, SMS can't send picture. It can only carry 160 characters (these days they dissect it and rebuild it on the receiver phone so I think you can do up to 1600 chars). Regardless, SMS is ancient. Forget pictures, videos, voice messages etc. Its only text. So I'm sure you WOULD give a crap if you had just that.
Heads up: There is no iPad app, you're using a 3rd party app that may or may not do malicious things with your data.
That being said, they're soon starting a beta test for their new multi-device system (use WhatsApp on other devices, independent of your phone), starting with WhatsApp web. Once they got that rolled out, they'll probably release the official iPad app they've had in development for a few years already.
Do people outside the U.S. see this "privacy" statement, too?
Whatsapp has replaced SMS in most countries, even phone calls, as call quality is usually superior... this just gives the antitrust lawsuit more arguments on why FB should be splitted apart...
Pure crap, millions of users will never give it up though. WhatsApp will have to be wrestled from the arms of FaceBook for these changes to be reversed.