WhatsApp, the app acquired by Facebook in 2014, is now asking users who want to continue using its instant messaging services to give up their private data to Facebook due to changes in its privacy policies starting in February.
The instant messaging application WhatsApp It can be said that it is the most famous in the world, with more than 2.000 million active usersThe popularity of this app is due to its fast and simple user interface, as well as the security and privacy it guarantees its users through end-to-end encryption, which keeps conversations safe. However, its popularity may vary significantly now that Facebook, the company that has owned this app since 2014, decided to change the terms of service and privacy policies of the application.
WhatsApp is giving you notifying to its billions of users who from next month February 8Those who accept the new terms of service will be authorizing Facebook to access and manage their data and private information. Currently, the application has access to the mobile phone number, profile name, image and personalized description that each user includes, as well as the contacts that are saved on the mobile phone, but in addition to these, the parent company will require new information for those who wish to continue using its services.
As we have explained in this medium, Facebook has been involved in several conflicts and scandals due to its poor security system and its precarious management of data, something that has given this company a rather reprehensible reputation before regulators, who refuse to authorize the launch of its digital currency project, now called diem, due to concerns that this company may incorrectly handle sensitive information, such as banking and financial data, of its millions of users.
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Demanding new private information
In addition to the data already mentioned, WhatsApp will also ask its users to grant permission to access new and precise private information that, it seems, will help users to better integrate with the products offered by Facebook, but which in reality means an invasion of users' privacy.
In the new terms and privacy policies imposed by the company, WhatsApp will automatically collect, data on app usage and activity log that are carried out on it, when the app is installed and when it is in use. Likewise, it will collect and use information about devices and connection, including phone model, battery level, mobile operator and internet operator, as well as connection strength, IP address, time zone, among others.
“We collect device- and connection-specific information… this includes information such as hardware model, operating system, battery level, signal strength, app version, browser, mobile network, connection (including phone number, mobile carrier, or Internet service provider), language and time zone, IP address, data about device operations, and identifiers (such as unique identifiers for Facebook Company Products associated with the same device or account).”
In the event that users interact with businesses that use WhatsApp services, the app will also collect and use information related to the interaction between both parties. That is, WhatsApp will handle information about payments made or received, such as shipping and receiving addresses, associated amounts, and any other information it deems necessary.
Wave of demand for other messaging apps
Following the update recently published by WhatsApp, other messaging applications such as Telegram y Signal are seeing their number of users grow considerably in the last week; in addition, the great defenders of digital privacy, such as the renowned defender of Bitcoin, Andreas Antonopoulos, are inviting their community of users to use alternative messaging apps like Signal, instead of sharing their private data with WhatsApp and Facebook, and of course Instagram.
The Bitcoin expert pointed out all Facebook applications as spyware, whose only goal seems to be to collect private data from its users for its own benefit.
The data provider Tower Sensor revealed that in the last two days, more than 100.000 users have downloaded the Signal app from the Google and Apple stores, while Telegram shows more than 2,2 million downloads.
Source: Sensor Tower
Despite users' preference for Telegram, Antonopoulos recommended use Signal, as this is an open source project focused on privacy, which works in a similar way to WhatsApp and allows users to send and receive messages, voice notes, photos, videos, GIFs and files for free, as well as make voice and video calls.
Failing to adhere to WhatsApp's basic principles
Jan Koum, CEO and founder of WhatsApp, said in 2014, when Facebook acquired the app, that it would not fail to uphold its core principle of privacy, on which WhatsApp was founded. Koum said in a letter that respect for privacy rights was in its DNA, so no user had to give names, email addresses, birthdays, home addresses, work addresses, or any kind of information about the “things you like, what you search for on the internet or your GPS data”; In short, the application was supposedly designed to guarantee privacy and to know “as little as possible” about its users.
Koum also assured that the agreement he signed with Facebook at that time would not change anything of this vision, and assured that “We have never taken any of that data or stored it on WhatsApp. And we really don’t plan to change that.”.
The executive said that an agreement with Facebook does not mean any change to its values, and that if it were so, he would not sign anything with the company; on the contrary, he assured that the alliance that was born would allow them to continue working in a “autonomous and independent”. Now, 6 years later, WhatsApp's policies have changed radically, completely violating the principles on which the app was founded just a few years ago.
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