Facebook-owned WhatsApp has updated its privacy policy for the first time in four years but to help Facebook. Yes, WhatsApp will be sharing your phone number and device id with Facebook for more targeted advertising on Facebook using WhatsApp.
With this new integration of Facebook and WhatsApp will help Facebook in showing better friend suggestions by mapping users’ social connections across the two services, and show more targeted ads.
When a person installs and sign up for WhatsApp, WhatsApp assigns a unique device id associated with the device. If the person uses a Facebook account on the same device but with the different number, Facebook will be able to map your WhatsApp number with your Facebook number in the background using your device id.
In case you talk to a person on WhatsApp but you have not added the person on Facebook, you will see his profile in suggestions.
WhatsApp also explains how this can help in fighting with spam. If a device using the Facebook account to spread malicious links and spam, WhatsApp will be able to recognize that person on WhatsApp and block him to keep WhatsApp safer place.
“We plan to share some information with Facebook and the Facebook family of companies that will allow us to coordinate more, such as to fight spam and abuse, and improve experiences across our services and those of Facebook and the Facebook family,” faq page notes.
Here, it mentions the Facebook family of companies. So Instagram can also be the part of this integration, but I am not sure about that.
Facebook will take advantage of this integration to show you more relevant ads. If you have signed up for the promotional messages of a local business and that business decides to advertise on Facebook, you will see its ads on your news feed.
As your messages on WhatsApp are encrypted, only the other person you are talking with can read your messages. Facebook, WhatsApp or any other company can not read your conversations. If you are worried about your privacy, WhatsApp already has clarification for this. Your number will not be sold to any advertiser.
“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. 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,” WhatsApp noted in its blog post.
WhatsApp is still an ad-free service, but Facebook wants to earn from it. Facebook is looking best ways to monetize WhatsApp without affecting user experience and interrupting user engagement. This is another step towards making WhatsApp a business. In coming days, we can expect more similar kind of steps from WhatsApp to start earning.
