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Users are fleeing the WhatsApp messaging app following news that it will start sharing certain usage data with parent company Facebook. The company responded that it would delay the update because millions of users have migrated to competing services Signal and Telegram, the former of which is doing so well that its app encountered loading issues in the face of the new use.
The changes will not be implemented until after May 2021.
Return on investment – It is remarkable but not surprising that it is only one delay, rather than a reversal. Facebook is not a nonprofit or charity; he does not buy any business without intending to earn income from it. And at $ 19 billion, WhatsApp remains Facebook’s biggest acquisition to date – an acquisition it has yet to turn into a money-printing machine.
WhatsApp does not display ads, and following its acquisition by Facebook in 2014, the app has removed the $ 1 fee it historically charged users. At the start of last year, WhatsApp canceled an initiative to embed ads in the messaging app.
A Facebook account is not required to use WhatsApp, but each time the update goes live, users must agree to grant Facebook access to metadata, including IP addresses, location of user, battery level and IMEI numbers, or the permanent identifier associated with a smartphone.
“Trust us” – WhatsApp has gone on the defensive, trying to point out that Facebook cannot read user communications, nor does it keep logs of location data or private messages. But Facebook did not specify what it intended to use the collected metadata for. It could potentially be used to target users in advertisements. User data collected by Facebook has been misused in the past, for example to hide housing ads from users in poorer areas or to target political ads that discourage certain demographics from voting.
Already seen – The change in WhatsApp policies is surely a slap in the face for the creators of the app, who built the app with strict privacy ideals in mind and a disdain for targeted ads. The two co-founders left Facebook after the autonomy they had been promised to maintain the messaging app’s mission disappeared. But then again they sold to Facebook – they surely knew that this result was practically inevitable.
After he left, co-founder Brian Acton called the public to #deletefacebook, and he donated $ 50 million to WhatsApp competitor Signal, which operates as a nonprofit so it never has to compromise its privacy-friendly mission.
Another Instagram – The same fate has been suffered by Facebook’s other crown jewel, Instagram. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has promised its executives full autonomy, only to reduce that control, as Facebook seeks to integrate the app into the main platform and fill the app with as many ad opportunities as possible. Instagram accounted for a third of Facebook’s revenue in 2019, showing that the $ 1 billion acquisition paid off, though many users believe the app has deteriorated over the years.
But WhatsApp users are very sensitive to the emphasis on privacy and closer integration with a business, synonymous with the opposite, may not be a challenge that Facebook can overcome no matter how many assurances that it issues.
Facebook has tried to tightly integrate its different apps by allowing users to cross-message each other so, for example, that an Instagram user can message someone on Facebook Messenger. Some believe the company is building these integrations to help argue to regulators that it would be too difficult to separate them in an antitrust ruling.
The company is no doubt hoping that pushing the deadline for the data sharing change back to May will mean that users will stop leaking, continue to use the service, and ultimately consent to the changes. In the meantime, we’ll continue to encourage our friends to give up for Signal.
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