WhatsApp Sets To Commence Sharing Of Facebook Data; Company Messages Among Users

Posted by African Examiner IT & Telecoms, Latest Headlines Friday, August 26th, 2016

BALTIMORE, MD (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Trending social medium – WhatsApp has announced its readiness to begin sharing of more data with the Facebook as well as start allowing some companies to send messages to users.

The development makes it the first time WhatsApp will change its privacy policy since its debut by Facebook in 2014.

Following the policy, WhatsApp will begin to share users’ phone numbers with the social network, which it will use to provide “more relevant” friend suggestions and advertisements.
The company said sharing users’ phone numbers with Facebook would help to tackle spam and abuse, as well as offer people “better friend suggestions and more relevant ads”.

It restated using the data, Facebook will be able to match people who have exchanged phone numbers, but have not added one another as “friends” on the social network.

In addition, WhatsApp will share information about when people last used the service, but assured it would not share the contents of messages, which are “encrypted”.

“Your encrypted messages stay private and no-one else can read them. Not WhatsApp, not Facebook, nor anyone else”, What App stressed in a blogpost.

The company also informed that users would be able to opt out of sharing information with Facebook by following the steps outlined on its website.