TALK SAFER: APPS TAKE PRIVACY FIGHT TO FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE

As messaging giant WhatsApp prepares to hand over more data to Facebook, users are flocking to rival services in protest, with Signal jumping from 250,000 downloads on the App Store a week to almost 10 million. The move sparks debate over the relationships we hold with the world’s biggest technology companies and a new war on privacy is rearing its head.

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WHATSAPP CONTROVERSY

As Facebook continues to integrate its Messenger, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp services to harvest more data from consumers and to futureproof itself against anti-trust investigations and growing pleas to break itself up, the company announced early January that it was planning to make changes to its privacy policy. For the first time, the application will begin sharing information about what you share on the app with Facebook, designed to build a stronger picture of users and deliver more effective advertising as a result. The firm added a pop-up to its instant messaging platform, telling users that they had no choice but to comply with the changes. Facebook said that, on February 8, users who don’t wish to adhere to the app’s policy will no longer be able to use the application and instead must use another tool, though the company has now pushed the deadline to May following criticism.

Back in July 2020, Facebook changed its WhatsApp policies to include sharing data with “third-party services or other Facebook Company Products that are integrated with our Services,” though at the time users were able to opt-out. Everything from your IP address and home address to phone numbers, mobile device information, transaction data, and other information can be carried over from WhatsApp to add to Facebook’s already-overgrown picture of consumers, with millions of trackers following users’ moves across the web. Apple fought back against some of these changes in 2020 with iOS 14 and macOS 11 Big Sur, though the company