WhatsApp will share data with Facebook !

SrkOnline

SrkOnline

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Facebook-owned messaging company WhatsApp said that it will be collecting user data including phone numbers, usage patterns, status and login information to perform analytics and for “people (users) to communicate with businesses”. Further such information will also be shared with Facebook and Facebook’s family of apps so that it can track basic metrics like how often users utilize services. By connecting a user’s phone number with Facebook’s servers, “Facebook can offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads (on timeline) if you have an account with them,” said the company in a statement.


http://goo.gl/wTLINa


WhatsApp Makes a U Turn, Will share Your Contact List with Facebook, Fortunately Power Still lies in Your Hands:

http://trak.in/tags/business/2016/08/26/facebook-contact-list-facebook/
 
Users can choose to opt-out: Note that WhatsApp users can nevertheless choose not share such information with Facebook by opting out of it from the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy settings. Users will have to agree to all terms and policies stated, and within 30 days of agreeing, you can still choose not to share account information from Account settings section. More on this here. But these developments seems to be different from what WhatsApp promised while being acquired by Facebook in 2014.
 
My story:

The son of the owner of the flat i'm renting called me one day about something. Spoke maybe 5 mins.

I saved his number and never called him back till date. Noticed that he appeared in my whatsapp contacts because he's now in my phonebook. Never communicated with him after that one 5 minute phone call till date, be it phone, sms, whatsapp, fb, skype, gmail.

One day I see not only him, but his wife as a suggestion in 'people you may know' in my FB. Note that facebook does not have any of my mobile numbers (officially) leave alone my whatsapp number, which is quite well hidden from the general public.

Please explain to me how facebook knew to give me these persons as friend suggestions. This was at least a couple months before their official data sharing announcement.
 
Julian said:
Please explain to me how facebook knew to give me these persons as friend suggestions. This was at least a couple months before their official data sharing announcement.
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If the son of the owner of the flat you are renting has searched for you on Facebook then, simultaneously you would see him in your suggestion list as well. And because that guy would probably have marked his wife as family in Facebook, you may get to see her in your suggestion list, as the algorithm would consider both of you as "family friends".

Your info may or may not have been fetched from Whatsapp but such "match-making" was prevalent even before Whatsapp's popularity.
 
I'm not active on FB, (have 3 friends added ages ago), and only recently used it as a social media tool to get customer service from a certain company. All my privacy settings are well secure and only friends (the 3 lol) can really access me. I'm not saying you're wrong but it seemed like too much of a coincidence, that's all. I also realise now that I don't have definite proof that it was via whatsapp that facebook got this suggestion, but the timing just seemed too convenient.[DOUBLEPOST=1472890298][/DOUBLEPOST]p.s. if a random person searches for me on FB, then I see him as a friend suggestion? Sounds like a privacy issue for both parties. Kinda moot anyway, anyone using whatsapp/facebook/truecaller has already said goodbye to privacy...
 
Bummer! WhatsApp Confirms That Your Number Would Be Shared With Facebook Whether You Like It Or Not

http://goo.gl/fpveKq

In a confirmation which has shattered all conventions of trust and privacy, WhatsApp has admitted that your contact number would be shared with Facebook, whether you have opted in or opted out. In short, if you are using WhatsApp, then they have the right to share your contact details.

as per a latest revelation by Hindustan Times, a spokesperson from WhatsApp has admitted that whether the user opts in or opts out, their contact number and some basic details about their handset would be shared with Facebook.


http://goo.gl/iQWhUW
 
like i said, moot ...

It was pretty certain things like this would happen when FB bought WA
 
WhatsApp themselves hitting the final nail on the coffin.
This "strategy" is going to further boost the popularity of Telegram.
 
I am in the process of trying Signal messenger with a friend. It's kinda bland, plain and boring compared to pretty little WA but does everything pretty well. It even has a chrome app for desktop chatting, something like whatsapp web, except that it's a chrome app not a website.

Only issue is none of my friends are accepting my requests to use this messenger on android! :-(
 
Julian said:
p.s. if a random person searches for me on FB, then I see him as a friend suggestion?
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In case of random persons, there has to be something common between you two... such as interests, schooling, likes, geo-location, mutual friends etc. But if a random person visits your profile several times then Facebook sees that as an "interest" and asks you "if you know that person."

I closed my FB account in 2007 and I have never used/installed WA in my life. Nobody knows my personal mobile number outside of my immediate family members. It's on full DND ever since this service was offered. And yet my brother sees my long-lost friends in his FB suggestion list. There is absolutely nothing common among my friends and my brother. My brother doesn't use WA. And I have never met/spoken to those friends in a decade. So, they don't know my phone number either.

My brother has a not-so-common name and my friends know that. When my friends couldn't find me on FB, they would have searched for my brother and checked out his profile in the hope that they would locate me on my brother's friend/family contact list. For my brother, they were totally random people and yet FB thought they might knew each other.

But that's how people used to discover their secret admirers during Orkut/HI5 days :p. These social networking sites would let you see who visited your profile, when and how many times. There were lots of other sites that used to collect such data and do a matchmaking on the basis of interests. In fact, Facebook too had this profile-visitor feature before people started to cry privacy.

Julian said:
Kinda moot anyway, anyone using whatsapp/facebook/truecaller has already said goodbye to privacy...
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Yes. If you use internet, there's no point losing your sleep over privacy leak.

Funny thing: For a long time my family couldn't find out how I was able to guess their surprise weekend dishes with so much accuracy. We all use different devices but share the same internet connection at home. By every Thursday/Friday, my Youtube account would start showing me list of recipes under "recommend for you" section. I have a Youtube account exclusively meant for downloading on PC and it's not shared with anybody. But thanks to omnipresent Google, my family members' secret Youtube recipes are no longer surprises!
 
Criminal said:
But that's how people used to discover their secret admirers during Orkut/HI5 days :p. These social networking sites would let you see who visited your profile, when and how many times. There were lots of other sites that used to collect such data and do a matchmaking on the basis of interests. In fact, Facebook too had this profile-visitor feature before people started to cry privacy.
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Ha ha


Criminal said:
Funny thing: For a long time my family couldn't find out how I was able to guess their surprise weekend dishes with so much accuracy. We all use different devices but share the same internet connection at home. By every Thursday/Friday, my Youtube account would start showing me list of recipes under "recommend for you" section. I have a Youtube account exclusively meant for downloading on PC and it's not shared with anybody. But thanks to omnipresent Google, my family members' secret Youtube recipes are no longer surprises!
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Do you mean that you get suggestions even though there are two different YouTube accounts?
 
Julian said:
I am in the process of trying Signal messenger with a friend. It's kinda bland, plain and boring compared to pretty little WA but does everything pretty well. It even has a chrome app for desktop chatting, something like whatsapp web, except that it's a chrome app not a website.

Only issue is none of my friends are accepting my requests to use this messenger on android! :-(
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Telegram is great. But I think not many people use it.
Besides WhatsApp, I think Hike messenger is second popular in India.
 
Delhi HC Finds Fault In WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy; Asks TRAI, DoT To Respond!


This recent order by Delhi HC is in response to the petition by Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi, who had basically questioned the reason behind WhatsApp’s sudden u-turn in privacy matters, and the way users’ consent was being taken.

The petition stated that WhatsApp is “unilaterally threatening to take away the protection to privacy of …data of its users and sharing the same with Facebook and all its group companies including for the purpose of commercial advertising and marketing.”

But WhatsApp’s New Privacy Policy Is Legal?

As per cyber law experts, although WhatsApp’s new privacy policy regarding advertisements and sharing of information is unfair, it’s perfectly legal.

Source: http://goo.gl/ijSuCz
 
SrkOnline said:
Telegram is great. But I think not many people use it.
Besides WhatsApp, I think Hike messenger is second popular in India.
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All these WhatsApp 'alternatives' are pretty much on par in terms of privacy/data mining etc. Signal is free, open source and secure. But I just uninstalled it. No point keeping an app where i have just one contact.
 
Privacy is a damn myth. Anyone who fights for it,only do it for the attention.

If people are so concerned about their privacy, should stop using Computer/internet/electronics and join some tribes in Africa. :)
 
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takemein said:
Privacy is a damn myth. Anyone who fights for it,only do it for the attention.

If people is so concerned about their privacy, should stop using Computer/internet/electronics and join some tribes in Africa. :)
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And BAM! The Truth hammer dropped.
 
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