WhatsApp to Share User Data With Facebook
August 25 2016 - 11:50AM
Dow Jones News
The messaging service WhatsApp will start sharing phone numbers
and other data with Facebook Inc., a shift in policy after vowing
little would change when the app was acquired by the social network
less than three years ago.
In a blog post Thursday, WhatsApp said it was updating its terms
of service and privacy policy for the first time in four years as
part of its plan to let users communicate with businesses.
WhatsApp said coordinating with Facebook will allow it to
analyze how people use its service, better fight spam and generally
improve the service. Even as it shares information with Facebook,
the company stressed, data won't be given to third parties such as
advertisers.
"Even as we coordinate more with Facebook in the months ahead,
your encrypted messages stay private and no one else can read them.
Not WhatsApp, not Facebook, nor anyone else," the company said. "We
won't post or share your WhatsApp number with others, including on
Facebook, and we still won't sell, share, or give your phone number
to advertisers."
Still, the move is likely to irk users who were skeptical when
Facebook announced it was acquiring WhatsApp for $19 billion in
February 2014. At the time, people questioned how Facebook would
use customers' data to ramp up revenue, and what impact that would
have on users' privacy. Shortly after the announcement, WhatsApp
said " respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA," in a bid to
stave off fears over the deal.
WhatsApp said users who signed up as of Aug. 25 have a 30-day
window to opt out of sharing some account data with Facebook after
accepting the new terms of service.
Facebook will now be able to recognize when someone is using its
main service as well as WhatsApp. By sharing a phone number with
Facebook, WhatsApp said, the social network can improve on friend
suggestions and show you more relevant ads. By using more
personalized data from Facebook, WhatsApp can better fight
spam.
Other Facebook apps such as Instagram might use WhatsApp data in
the same way. Facebook doesn't plan to integrate WhatsApp and its
other messaging service, Messenger. WhatsApp steered users to an
extended FAQ about the policy change.
Facebook is also testing ways users of its own Messenger service
can connect with businesses, as it looks for ways to boost revenue
from its stable of apps that count users in the hundreds of
millions. WhatsApp had about 450 million users at the time of its
acquisition; it now has more than a billion.
Write to Brian R. Fitzgerald at brian-r.fitzgerald@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 25, 2016 11:35 ET (15:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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