The recent change in WhatsApp’s privacy policy to share your phone number and other data with Facebook may have hit the top news, but there is actually something that could be more intrusive covered in the same update.
In addition WhatsApp now sharing your contact number with Facebook, its updated policy additionally uncovers that the well known instant messaging app will soon start publishing ads to users.
While this been expected for quite some time, it’s the first time that WhatsApp themselves have acknowledged that it will soon start publishing advertising to users of the application.
The controversial decision for WhatsApp messenger to share user data with Facebook was only recently announced.
The change which incorporates sharing data, for example your phone number and the times of when you use WhatsApp, spurred outrage from users and even monitoring for privacy regulators.
There are other changes to WhatsApp’s privacy policy that imply that the ads will soon be going to the app.
WhatsApp has said that the advertisements won’t be intrusive but are liable to originate from businesses or organizations you have interacted with. You can expect services like banks and airlines to be among the first to feature in the advertisements.
“People use our app consistently to stay in contact with the friends and loved ones who matter to them and this isn’t evolving. But as we reported not long ago we want to investigate courses for you to communicate with businesses that matter to you too while still giving you an ordeal without banner ads and spam”, messenger WhatsApp said in a blog-post.
“Whether it’s got notification from your bank about a fraudulent transaction, or receiving a message from an airline about a flight delay, many of us get this information sometimes incorporated into text messages and phone calls. We want to test these features but we need to update our terms and privacy policy to do as such”.
While you can stop WhatsApp from sharing your phone number with Facebook, it is unclear at this stage if opting out of the new terms will likewise stop ads appearing in the messaging app.
WhatsApp has not served ads to users before and used to make its money by charging a one time fee for users.
It has been anticipatd for some time that social network giant Facebook would use the app somehow to make money from the company it obtained in 2014 for almost $19 billion.
So the question is, how do WhatsApp’s changes to its privacy policy affect you?
WhatsApp will permit other companies to send e-messages to you through the app. It claims that these messages will be about things that are important to you. For instance you could discover when your online shopping request will be conveyed or whether your flight has been postponed.