To allow the social network to suggest phone contacts as friends, Whatsapp is soon going to share user phone numbers with Facebook. This is part of the new privacy policy (Available here) published by Whatsapp on Thursday, 25th August 2016.
This data exchange will allow Facebook to improve its ad targeting and ‘product experiences’ predominantly by accessing your friend list and your content browsing history. However, the policy says, “Nothing you share on WhatsApp, including your messages, photos, and account information, will be shared onto Facebook…”
The move is also the first major update to Whatsapp’s privacy policy since Facebook acquired it for $19bn in 2014. The company states that this information may be used for “fighting spam, abuse, or infringement activities.”
This has left the facebook users in anguish as The Guardian reports, “Facebook is being accused of backtracking on its pledge not to use the data of the 1 billion users of the WhatsApp messaging app it acquired two years ago”. We didn’t expect any less, did we?
Right, so if you don’t like your number being shared with Facebook, you can turn off the data sharing in Whatsapp. Simply go to Settings > Account > Turn OFF Sharing
and Voila!!! Freedom!
