What about if/when Facebook sell the data on?
WhatsApp mandatory data sharing with Facebook
- Thread starter LiE
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What about if/when Facebook sell the data on?
Well they would need to do quite an update to their T&Cs which would get loads of media traction before they could do that.
They use our data to profile and sell targeted adspace to companies, they do not sell our data to companies.
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If it's just advertisement data they are welcome to do that to use their free product whats app. There must be other data they have apart from advertisement data to sell on if this was the case.
Whatever they can use to gain power and profit, of course. That's what spying is always about - power, profit or both. Not necessarily by itself - often information on a person becomes useful against them when combined with other information on them. Every bit of information helps to build up more leverage on them and thus make it easier to manipulate them into the desired political and/or financial positions and/or punish them for undesired ones.
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BBM
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I use Whatsapp on my phone but I don't use Facebook at all. So, don't really care.
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BBM would have never done this. If only it existed.
Most likely they didn't.
What they most likely did was that when your friends signed up for Facebook / logged into it on their phone they gave Facebook permissions to their contacts, which would include your phone number / email address presumably.
When you then signed up to Facebook it was able to correlate it and suggest them as friends because if they have your contact details you probably know them.
I know that's how many companies do it, not sure how compatible it is with GDPR etc but that's not my problem!
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I remember back in the late 1990s there was a rivalry between the instant messengers. Mainly AIM, ICQ, IRC and Yahoo IM.
Then MSN came along in the early 2000s and that was the go-to IM for around 10 years.
Then WhatsApp surfaced around 2010 and that went on to become the go-to IM for the next 10 years, up to the present day. So like you said, it's synonymous with messaging. The thing also with WhatsApp is that it has video capability as well as IM, so it will compete against the likes of Skype and MS Teams.
Will be interesting to see how it fares against Telegram, something I haven't used but is getting several mentions in this thread.
That's pretty much what happened when I installed Instagram on my phone. I signed up with a new email address, I used a random made up name and I didn't let it access my contacts but it still suggested I follow loads of people I knew so it must have picked them up from Facebook. I don't specifically remember giving Facebook access to my contacts but I may have done so, years ago. I only installed Instagram it to see what it was all about so just removed it. I deactivated my Facebook account back in December but kept Messenger active because I'm in certain groups.
In the privacy settings on my phone, I have both microphone and camera disabled for WhatsApp and Messenger but beyond that, I just don't care if anything is shared between them.
Well, if Facebook have access to message content (and voice conversation data) then users need to seriously reconsider using this service in a professional context. The amount of handover and confidential information (over voice conversations) is quite staggering within the NHS.
Messages are still encrypted. They will know everything else though. Who, when, how often, etc.
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They probably already do this and have been doing it for years.
It'll be for targeted advertising.
Rather that than what they'd need to charge if they stopped doing it and charged users what they were making from selling peoples browsing habits/data for advertising.
It'll be for targeted advertising.
Rather that than what they'd need to charge if they stopped doing it and charged users what they were making from selling peoples browsing habits/data for advertising.
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I’m just on speaking to someone about this and look what pops up....
the agreement on my what’s app.
the agreement on my what’s app.
Maybe now we've left the EU we'll have a government with the bottle to tell corporations they can't do certain stuff even if they can coerce you into providing consent. You know, actual privacy protections for citizens against overreaching businesses, radical I know.
I wouldn't hold your breathe though.
I wouldn't hold your breathe though.
A very dangerous stance that too many people take too easily.
It means the same as "I don't mind you spying on me all the time with or without my consent" in this sort of context.
Have you read 1984?
Oh I don't know then. Unless it was at a time before Android/iOS really locked down on privacy? Maybe it was able to read your phone number or something.
The one problem with disabling the mic is WhatsApp voice calls are brilliant, so much more clarity than normal phone networks.
Given the fact things like GDPR was an EU thing, and the Government were wanting to rewrite the human rights act etc good luck with that
and the fact the Government are funded by rich people's
I already use Telegram to communicate daily with my gaming buddies, however I also use Whatsapp on the side. My big issue is the group chat for the small block of flats I live in, is on Whatsapp and I really need that. Convincing folks to move over is an obvious waste of time so I'll lose out there. I despise FB, IG and all that rubbish so Whatsapp does need to go somehow.