Updated January 15, 2021: the specificity described here for exchanges between users and companies actually only concerns EU member countries, because of the GDPR. See details at the end of the article.
WhatsApp, following the update of its privacy policy recently indicating the creation of acommunication bridge between WhatsApp and Facebookallowing the exchange of data between the two entities, has seen many users flee for other horizons that are greener on paper in terms of respect for privacy.See in particular hereour comparison between WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram on the subject of security and collection of user information.
To try to stem this exodus, the messaging service saw fitto add new detailsas for its new link with Facebook which will be effective fromnext February 8. Details are available in source. In summary, WhatsApp simply indicates that the new collaboration with Facebook will not beuseful and effective only for commercial discussions.
In short, private exchanges between friends, family and others will not be less visible to WhatsApp than they were until now. It is only chats made with companies that will be able to benefit from improvements supported by Facebook technologies.
WhatsApp wants in particular to allow companies that wish to improve their communication on its platform using services hosted by Facebook. Thus, user information provided in these discussions with companies can be retrieved and used by the latter for marketing purposes.
But WhatsApp clearly underlines the fact that thisdoes not change anything for private discussions. Using a graph, the service wants to reaffirm several points regarding the confidentiality of user data, and drive the point home.
This is what we can read in the image:
- Neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can know the contents of private messages and calls
- WhatsApp does not keep a history of people who have come into contact
- Neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can know your location shared in a chat
- WhatsApp does not share your contact information with Facebook
- Private groups stay private
- You can send temporary messages that disappear after a while
- You can download your data
Not sure that this is enough to calm the desire to look elsewhere among many users who are sensitive about respecting private data, especially when we see theamount of information retrievedby WhatsApp according to the App Store sheet of the app,compared to Télégram or Signaland other similar applications.
What do you think of these new details from WhatsApp? Did they reassure you?
January 15 update
In fact, these clarifications would only concern WhatsApp users based in the European Union. Indeed, thanks to the GDPR, personal data must not be sent from one company to another, and therefore there is theoretically no possible transfer of user data between WhatsApp and Facebook, except for exchanges with professional services.
However,as noted by QueChoisir magazine, Facebook has already been caught red-handed in the past. In 2017, the CNIL, National Commission for Information Technology and Liberties, noticed that Facebook was already collecting a lot of data from WhatsApp outside of any legal framework. In addition, Facebook is really not an example in terms of respect for user data and for digital privacy in general, as the Cambridge Analytica scandal showed in 2018. In this context , Mark Zuckerberg's network and the private data it stored were completely plundered, with millions of user information taken and used for marketing purposes, without users' consent, of course.
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Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.
