If you're a WhatsApp user, you'll have to share your personal data with Facebook from next month – and no, you can't opt-out this time
- Reference: 1609974585
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/01/06/whatsapp_terms_change/
- Source link:
“As part of the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, the other Facebook Companies,” its privacy policy, updated this week, [1]stated .
“We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings, including the Facebook Company Products.”
Yes, said information includes your personal information. Thus, in other words, WhatsApp users must allow their personal info to be shared with Facebook and [2]its subsidiaries as and when decided by the tech giant. Presumably, this is to serve personalized advertising.
If you’re a user today, you have two choices: accept this new arrangement, or stop using the end-to-end encrypted chat app (and use something else, like Signal.) The changes are expected to take effect on February 8.
Facebook crushed rivals to maintain an illegal monopoly, the entire United States yells in Zuckerberg’s face [3]READ MORE
When WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014, it promised netizens that its instant-messaging app would not collect names, addresses, internet searches, or location data. CEO Jan Koum wrote in a [4]blog post : “Above all else, I want to make sure you understand how deeply I value the principle of private communication. For me, this is very personal. I was born in Ukraine, and grew up in the USSR during the 1980s.
"One of my strongest memories from that time is a phrase I’d frequently hear when my mother was talking on the phone: 'This is not a phone conversation; I’ll tell you in person.' The fact that we couldn’t speak freely without the fear that our communications would be monitored by KGB is in part why we moved to the United States when I was a teenager.”
Two years later, however, that vow was eroded by, well, capitalism, and WhatsApp decided it would share its users' information with Facebook though [5]only if they consented . That ability to opt-out, however, will no longer be an option from next month. Koum [6]left in 2018.
That means users who wish to keep using WhatsApp must be prepared to give up personal info such as their names, profile pictures, status updates, phone numbers, contacts lists, and IP addresses, as well as data about their mobile devices, such as model numbers, operating system versions, and network carrier details, to the mothership. If users engage with businesses via the app, order details such as shipping addresses and the amount of money spent can be passed to Facebook, too.
The Register asked Facebook to explain this all, and it declined to comment.
Facebook Pages update
In other related news, Facebook has also redesigned Pages, a feature for public figures and businesses. The biggest change is it’ll have a news feed focused on person’s or company’s latest updates, allowing users to interact with the admins of the Facebook Page. Celebrities can engage with fans; people can grumble about their customer service pains and so on.
It has also removed the godforsaken “like” button so that the page only shows the number of people following it. These changes won't affect normal Facebook accounts. ®
Euronote
The above privacy policy change applies to WhatsApp users outside Facebook's so-called [7]European Region , an area that includes the UK. For countries inside the region, WhatsApp says in [8]this FAQ it "shares information with the other Facebook Companies who act on our behalf to help us operate, provide, improve, understand, customise, support, and market our Services."
It goes on:
When we receive services from the Facebook Companies, the information we share with them is used on WhatsApp’s behalf and in accordance with our instructions. Any information WhatsApp shares on this basis cannot be used for the Facebook Companies’ own purposes.
Translation: Facebook-owned WhatsApp can share info with Facebook, and tell it how to use it, though Facebook can't later use that data for some other purpose. If you're not happy with this arrangement, you can [9]complain here .
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/updates/privacy-policy?eea=0#privacy-policy-updates-how-we-work-with-other-facebook-companies
[2] https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/the-facebook-companies
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/09/facebook_crushed_competitors_to_maintain/
[4] https://blog.whatsapp.com/setting-the-record-straight
[5] https://blog.whatsapp.com/looking-ahead-for-whats-app
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2018/05/01/whatsapp_founder_leaves_facebook/
[7] https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/who-is-providing-your-whatsapp-services
[8] https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/updates/privacy-policy-eea
[9] https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/objecting-to-the-processing-of-your-personal-data
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Does this apply here?
In the UK, haven't received any notification that the T&C or Privacy Policy will change, but both are in essence the same document provided by either WhatsApp LLC or WhatsApp Ireland, depending whether you live in the "European Region" or not.
Almost certain this would not be compatible with GDPR.
Edit: Sod's law again. However, you may be able to hand WhatsApp a formal objection to data processing between it and Facebook: https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/objecting-to-the-processing-of-your-personal-data
Re: Does this apply here?
I'd imagine that if they tried something so barefaced in the EU it would be the full 4% of turnover. Repeated as long as they kept it up. It would be a challenge that couldn't be ignored.
Really ?
The EU is a toothless tiger against the US megacorps. They write up reams of funny legalese and pronto they can continue to collect whatever they please, despite GDPR.
As always: follow the lobby cash in Brussels.
"Does this apply to the UK and the EU though?"
From WhatsApp's European Economic Area [1]FAQ (which claims to include the UK still, updated Jan 4, 2021):
"WhatsApp also works, and shares information with the other Facebook Companies who act on our behalf to help us operate, provide, improve, understand, customise, support, and market our Services.
"This includes the provision of infrastructure, technology, and systems, e.g. for providing you with fast and reliable messaging and calls around the world; improving infrastructure and delivery systems; understanding how our Services are used; helping us provide a way for you to connect with businesses; and securing systems.
"When we receive services from the Facebook Companies, the information we share with them is used on WhatsApp’s behalf and in accordance with our instructions. Any information WhatsApp shares on this basis cannot be used for the Facebook Companies’ own purposes"
So, Facebook Companies can't use the info for their own purposes but can use it as WhatsApp directs, such as to provide - say - targeted advertising.
C.
[1] https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/updates/privacy-policy-eea
Re: Does this apply here?
According to the updated privacy policy, it applies in the UK (post brexit) but not in the EU.
There is a separate privacy policy for the EU.
Account deleted
Well, that gave me the last bit of incentive I needed to delete my whatsapp account.
Re: Account deleted
I really really wish I could......sadly my work uses it, my family uses it etc. Most annoying.
It's on a different phone to the one I use for calls and facebook is disabled on it.
Next: Fingerprints
They already have the phone number and it only runs with a SIM card. You can only get SIM Cards by presenting an ID card here.
I assume next they will require Fingerprints.
Terrorizm&Childporn will be the "cause".
After all, how can we control the 99% of law abiding citizens ?
Successful because it had principles and wasn't facebook
Whats App owes its continued popularity to the fact its not facebook or messenger despite being owned by facebook.
This will end up like Skype did, hardly anyone will use it and we will all go back to texting or something.
FOSS
XMPP Server
Xabber client
No police identification needed.
The final straw
Thanks, my WhatsApp is now trashed. Or to put it another way, it's reunited with Facebook and Instagram - in ex-account hell.
Yep
Well, given that Facebook bought them in 2014, and by 2016 had already been fined by UK and Germany (possibly among others) for slurping people's data*, not surprised at all. They really are just clarifying what they were already doing without properly disclosing it.
*Per the articles from 2016, they had a very well hidden, time-limited, one-time-use-only, opt-out, fined because of how hard it was to find and because in countries that care about privacy, slurping data from people that signed up for a service that didn't do it to begin with requires an opt-in not an opt-out.
Good thing I deleted WhatsApp years ago....
Still have people asking to use it .... I'm sure the founders are rolling over on their piles of money....
Re: Good thing I deleted WhatsApp years ago....
If somebody offered me $22m for my company let alone $22bn, I'd find it hard to say no. Actually the founders seem to be nice and despite everything have morals. One of them giving up $850m to quit facebook. #deletefacebook
[1]https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/09/26/exclusive-whatsapp-cofounder-brian-acton-gives-the-inside-story-on-deletefacebook-and-why-he-left-850-million-behind/?sh=405e3cc33f20
[2]https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/30/jan-koum-whatsapp-co-founder-quits-facebook
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2018/09/26/exclusive-whatsapp-cofounder-brian-acton-gives-the-inside-story-on-deletefacebook-and-why-he-left-850-million-behind/?sh=405e3cc33f20
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/30/jan-koum-whatsapp-co-founder-quits-facebook
Telegram
Time to switch to something less crap.
For the paranoid there is Signal, and for the cautious but still like convenience there is Telegram
WickerMe is also nice, but very focused on, um, weed related uses ;)
Does this apply here?
Does this apply to the UK and the EU though?
IIRC they tried in the past and found it was incompatible with GDPR. Thats still in force - as the DPA in the UK, and the UK is still served by Whatsapp Ireland.
Has anyone in the UK actually had the T&C notification?
EDIT: sods law,of course I then got the notification. Clearly it does apply here, another useful servive rendered unusable