How much privacy will we lose with the purchase of WhatsApp on Facebook?

How much privacy will we lose with the purchase of WhatsApp on Facebook?

Koum (38) emigrated from Ukraine to California with his mother when he was a teenager. Jan Koum’s childhood in Ukraine had a lot to do with the birth of Whatsapp. The experience of living in a country where telephone lines are often tapped instilled in him a great respect for privacy, according to Jim Goetz, investor of the instant messaging company.

But the purchase of the messaging service by Facebook is viewed with suspicion by groups that defend privacy, which ask that US regulators stop the operation until Facebook offers more information about what they plan to do with the data. of the 450 million users of WhatsApp.

Mark Zuckerberg’s company announced that it will buy WhatsApp for US$19,000 million, the largest purchase made so far by the social network and, according to the BBC told the specialized site TechCrunch, the largest purchase of a startup ( new company) of history.

And, as there have already been intense debates about Facebook and privacy, now the focus is on what will happen to the users of the instant messages.

It is worth remembering that Facebook, the largest social network in the world with 1.2 billion users, generates most of its income by displaying ads that point to users by age, sex and other characteristics.

WhatsApp, a service that allows mobile phone users to send messages to each other, is committed not to collect data from users for advertising purposes.

“Our goal is to protect democracy and freedom of expression, we encrypt the information between our client and our server, we do not store any other messages on our servers, we do not store the chat history. phone, “Houm told Wired magazine.

Commitment

Facebook said it will comply with existing privacy agreements. For its part, Facebook said it will operate as an independent company and comply with existing privacy agreements, which do not include the collection of user data for advertising.

But there is no guarantee that this commitment will continue to be met once the service becomes part of Facebook, according to the complaint filed with the US Federal Trade Commission. by the Electronic Privacy Reporting Center and the Center for Digital Democracy, two non-profit organizations.

“WhatsApp built a user base based on its commitment not to collect data from users to obtain advertising revenue,” the complaint says.

He adds: “Users give the company detailed personal information, including texts to their close friends, Facebook routinely uses the user’s information for advertising purposes and has made it clear that they intend to incorporate the data of WhatsApp users in the user profile business model.

“The proposed acquisition, therefore, will violate WhatsApp users’ understanding of their exposure to online advertising and constitutes a practice unfair commercial and deceptive, subject to investigation by the Federal Trade Commission.

Both organizations asked regulators to investigate the purchase” specifically with regard to Facebook’s ability to access the registry WhatsApp has the user’s mobile phone numbers and their metadata.

As we have said on several occasions, WhatsApp will operate as an independent company and will fulfill its commitments. with privacy and security, “Facebook said in a statement.

WhatsApp has reiterated its commitment not to offer advertising and prefers to charge users one dollar a year. But for Facebook the temptation to use the information to design personalized advertising is strong.

 Advertising vs.privacy

Despite the promises of WhatsApp and Facebook that privacy policies are not going to change, the groups pointed out that Mark Zuckerberg’s company has in the past modified the privacy policies of a company after acquiring it.

WhatsApp users could not reasonably have foreseen that by choosing a message service in favor of privacy they would leave their data at the mercy of Facebook’s data collection practices

Complaint filed before the US Federal Trade Commission It should be noted that it did with the photo sharing service Instagram, which it bought in 2012.

Regulators should demand that Facebook “isolate” the WhatsApp user’s information from Facebook’s data collection practices, says the complaint.

“WhatsApp users could not have foreseen that by choosing a message service in favor of privacy they would leave their data at the mercy of Facebook’s data collection practices,” reads the statement.

The big question is whether Facebook will start using WhatsApp user data – the content of the messages but also the location of the client – to direct their ads.

Will we tell a friend about WhatsApp that we are thirsty and then we will see on our Facebook wall soda advertisements? The answer is the Federal Trade Commission of the United States, which will decide whether the acquisition can be continued and, if so, whether conditions should be imposed.