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Facebook has received backlash over its plans to implement a new privacy policy that will require users to share their private data with WhatsApp, its messaging app.
Last week, WhatsApp informed its users of updates to its terms of service and privacy policy, including letting Facebook and its affiliates collect their data.
The information includes the user’s phone numbers, location, contacts in the address book, and financial transactions made on WhatsApp.
Users can either accept the changes immediately or postpone this decision until later. However, on February 8, the messaging app will be inaccessible to those who have not accepted the new rules. WhatsApp has been owned by Facebook since 2014.
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The changes have raised concerns about data collection and privacy.
Questions are being raised about what information WhatsApp collects from its two billion users and what it shares with its sister companies such as Facebook, Messenger and Instagram.
Mugambi Laibuta, who advises companies on privacy and data protection, tweeted that Whatspp’s new data rules violate Kenya’s 2019 data protection law.
Express consent
“If you don’t agree to the new terms, you don’t appreciate the service … It goes against the principle of freely given consent,” he tweeted. “Ideally, under data protection law, we have the right to object to WhatsApp actions … WhatsApp wants to use our data for commercial purposes. Under clause 37, they have to get our express consent, otherwise they are against the law. ”
Rival messaging apps like Telegram sent sarcastic messages at WhatsApp’s expense. Telegram yesterday tweeted a GIF of dancing coffin bearers with an image of WhatsApp’s new data rules superimposed on the coffin.
But WhatsApp has defended its new policy saying the data will be used to personalize advertising.
“Facebook and other businesses in the Facebook family may also use our information to improve your experiences within their services, such as making product suggestions (for example, friends or connections, or interesting content) and posting relevant offers and advertisements, ”the company says.
Since the time WhatsApp was notified of the changes, downloads of Signal, a rival messaging app, have increased, making it the most downloaded app on the App Store.
Signal was developed by one of the creators of WhatsApp, Brian Acton who sold their app to Facebook in 2014. He left the company in 2017 and co-founded Signal Foundation which develops Signal.
WhatsApp has sought to purify the air. “It is important for us to be clear that this update describes corporate communication and does not change WhatsApp’s data sharing practices with Facebook.
“It has no impact on how people communicate privately with friends or family anywhere in the world,” Will Cathcart, the WhatsApp posted on Twitter.
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