Rather than clicking “agree” blindly, press the smaller “read more” option below.
Messaging giant WhatsApp has announced a big change to its privacy policy and says it would start sharing some user data –including your phone number- with parent company Facebook.
The two companies say the new policy will help you find friends and “improve your Facebook ads and products experiences,” but it will also give businesses a new avenue to reach potential customers, with WhatsApp describing situations where banks and airlines will use your phone number to get in touch about fraudulent payments or delayed flights.
“Facebook can offer better suggestions and show you more relevant ads if you have an account with them. For example, you might see an ad from a company you already work with, rather than one from someone you’ve never heard of,” WhatsApp writes in a blog on the change today.
WhatsApp will also be sharing the data with the “Facebook family of companies” – so presumably its user data could also be fed to VR firm Oculus Rift, another Fb acquisition, and photo-sharing network Instagram.
Eventhough WhatsApp has promised that it won’t sell or share that number with advertisers, you’ve still got a chance to stop WhatsApp from handling Facebook this new data if you act fast.
Although most users will just tap ‘I agree’ to WhatsApp’s new T&C without reading them and realizing what they are agreeing to, there are two methods to opt out.
Rather than clicking “agree” blindly, press the smaller “read more” option below, and uncheck the box that reads “Share my WhatsApp account information with Facebook…”
If you already accepted those new terms, you still got 30 days to opt out. Head to the app’s settings menu, and then press the account tab. From there, you can uncheck the box reading “Share my account info” to stop providing Facebook with your user data.
WhatsApp say that the new change is meant only to help improve the ads on Facebook and it isn’t clear that opting out of the new terms will change the experience at all, either when compared with people who are still having their data shared with Facebook, or with before WhatsApp introduced the change.