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Italian users are also receiving notifications about the new WhatsApp usage rules. The news is that as of February 8, those who do not accept them will no longer be able to use the popular messaging application. As of January 4, both the WhatsApp Terms of Service and privacy policies have changed. Reason? Ensure increasing integration of the instant messaging service with the parent company: Facebook.
This is not trivial and not just for the size of a market that now has almost 3 billion users. Actually, this notification changes everything. The reason is easy to understand: despite the guarantees given the day Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014, if you do not accept these conditions (non-negotiable) from February 8, you will no longer be able to use the service. Clear letters are written in the notification where two updates are highlighted: the data processing method and how companies can use the services available on Facebook to store and manage their chats on WhatsApp.
The new rules are apparently not very different from the old ones, but they are much more detailed. While it is indisputable that any such service exchanges information by collaborating with external partners and suppliers, WhatsApp also offers customers and affiliates “information on orders, transactions and appointments, notifications on deliveries and shipments, updates on products and services and marketing”. that are shared with “specific services to companies and other organizations”. Furthermore, it is written on the WhatsApp site that “in order to administer our Global Services, we must store and distribute content and information in our data centers and systems around the world, including outside the user’s countries of residence and owned by our providers. services, including affiliated companies, or managed by them “.
And this is the critical point. Although nothing changes in the ways of registering for the service (possible from 16 years in Europe), in the management of the address book and in the costs, the change in the offer of these services is due to the fact that the companies with which WhatsApp exchanges data have multiplied. and information. WhatsApp says so explicitly: from now on, all data and information produced by user interactions, including automatically collected, can be used by Facebook and its companies. They are many, global and popular like Instagram, Boomerang, Messenger, Thread, including Facebook stores and companies that manage the rights of Oculus, virtual reality headsets and equipment, the business of the future.
In short, to exchange greetings for the upcoming New Year for free, it will be mandatory to give a lot of personal information for multiple business services. Starting with the new “cart” function where you can load purchases and which should appear next to the icon to make phone calls. But the data that can be shared between WhatsApp, Facebook and the rest of the group companies are not only the telephone number and contacts, the name and image of the groups, but also the so-called metadata, that is, the duration and frequency of interactions. that we have as individual users and companies, including transaction data and all information about the devices used to do so, including the IP address and the location of the network. The risk is that our online activity becomes less and less confidential. The official motivation remains to improve infrastructure and delivery systems, ensure the protection, security and integrity of Facebook companies’ products to prevent abuse and breaches, improve services and user experience, etc., but think about it as the core. The point is to understand how the services of Facebook companies are used, offer us what we are most likely to want and buy it based on the detailed profile of our account activities.
At night, on the website of Ansa, a clarification came from the company: “” There are no changes in the methods of sharing WhatsApp data in the European Region, including the United Kingdom, derived from the update of the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy – explains a WhatsApp spokesperson – We do not share the data of the users of the European area with Facebook to allow Facebook to use said data to improve its products or advertisements ”.
