Facebook is leaky, creepy, and trashy. Now it wants to host some of your customer data
- Reference: 1603430109
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/23/facebook_whatsapp_business_api_hosting/
- Source link:
The antisocial giant says it will host data generated by WhatsApp, specifically when used alongside the messaging service’s Business API. That interface lets businesses manage messages to and from customers, and to integrate e-commerce and other apps into the messaging platform. Facebook lets partners implement the API and choose where data is stored.
The Social Network™ on Thursday [1]announced “a new way for businesses to store and manage their WhatsApp chats with customers using Facebook’s secure hosting infrastructure which will roll out early next year.”
Facebook says customers who take up its offer “will make it easier to onboard to WhatsApp Business API … respond to WhatsApp messages faster, keep their inventory up to date and sell products through chats.”
But the Silicon Valley giant also says that using a third party – even Facebook – breaks end-to-end encryption.
Facebook's anti-trademark bot torpedoes .org website that just so happened to criticize Zuck's sucky ethics board [2]READ MORE
“If a business chooses to use a third party vendor to operate the WhatsApp Business API on their behalf, we do not consider that to be end-to-end encrypted since the business you are messaging has chosen to give a third-party vendor access to those messages,” Facebook said. “This will also be the case if that third-party vendor is Facebook.”
Facebook will therefore disclose when it is hosting chats on behalf of a customer albeit without revealing the degraded encryption.
The web goliath said it will also “expand our partnerships with business solution providers we’ve worked with over the last two years,” so while it says it will offer a better on-boarding experience, it’s throwing them another unspecified bone.
The Social Network™ said its hosting services will emerge in coming months, which gives us all plenty of time to ponder whether you want to get into business with a corporation that has failed to suppress misinformation, allowed live-streaming of a racist terror attack, leaked personal data, and took years to figure out that holocaust denial has [3]no place in public conversations. ®
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[1] https://about.fb.com/news/2020/10/privacy-matters-whatsapp-business-conversations/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/09/facebook_ethics_takedown/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/12/mark_zuckerberg_holocaust_facebook/
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Am I the only one still sane?
"That interface lets businesses manage messages to and from customers"
Me, I use a telephone. It's faster, and gets the message across far more clearly than most people can either type, or comprehend, the written word.
Re: Am I the only one still sane?
I've noticed a real uptick in businesses (and politicians) using text messages instead of phone calls recently, including phishing attempts. This is supposedly due to people not answering phone calls from numbers they don't recognize. And yes, I am one of those people.
Re: Am I the only one still sane?
I can comprehend the written word significantly faster than anyone can speak and be comprehended.
Re: Am I the only one still sane?
I agree, I possibly miss some 'news' because it is a video segment and I rapidly pass on by to the next written account. My typing is lousy, (arthritis?), but I still send and receive messages as needed. The written word hangs about until it is processed or deleted, spoken claptrap passes on by, to the sewers of a bygone age where it may meet up with Facebook's antisocial detritus.
Re: Am I the only one still sane?
Nope. You'll be missing nuances in the message, tone of voice, and many other things that make voice superior to text every single time.
Re: Am I the only one still sane?
Which just reminds me of the old saying.
"How can you tell if a politician is lying?
Their lips are moving"
Oh Grandma
What big [Data Scraping] Eyes you have !