whatsapp share data to facebook

Beware! Whatsapp is going to share your personal data with facebook

We know that facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, acquired Whatsapp for $19 billion in 2014. It was declared  itself does not intend to make a profit by displaying ads. In fact, in an official statement on their blog, WhatsApp parties have confirmed that they are not interested to use the personal data of users for the benefit of business.

Unfortunately, this commitment did not last long. On Thursday , 25 Aug 2016, WhatsApp announced its first privacy policy update in updated version that they will begin to share their users’ personal data to the parent company Facebook. If the user accept its Terms & Condition, then his/her WhatsApp and Facebook will be connected. The purpose is to sell more advertisements.  Facebook wants to make its advertisements targeted as per users’ interest by getting users’ data information from WhatsApp after getting their approval. If the user bothered by that privacy issue, The user has 30 days from agreeing to the terms to stop Facebook getting the data.

User data that will be shared such as account details, mobile number, device type and operating system used. However, there is no need to worry about the personal or group conversation as they are end-to-end encrypted so even the company cannot read the messages. Moreover images or videos that user share or receive and voice communication at WhatsApp are also secured, these cannot be viewed by anyone except the user and other party to whom he/she send and receive from. Despite all conversations chat in WhatsApp get a guaranteed protected from wiretapping another party due to the end-to-end ecncrypted . But WhatsApp’s decision to share user data to Facebook still raises the suspicion that company will be compromising their users’ privacy for the sake of business.

How to stop Whatsapp sharing your info to Facebook?

WhatsApp has provided 2 ways to stop sharing of WhatsApp.

Procedure 1:

  • Read the updated ‘Terms and Conditions’ before you accept it by Tap read or ‘Read more’ at bottom of the screen.
    Whatsapp updated tnc
  • After tap read, there is a checkbox or toggle control at the bottom of the screen. If you do not want to let WhatsApp sharing your number/data, then uncheck the box and or toggle the control.
    WhatsApp TnC option

Procedure 2:

In case you’ve already accepted the new Terms & Conditions without unchecking the box, you still have 30 days to stop it.

You need to go to Settings Account Share my account info in the app and uncheck the box or toggle control displayed there if you do not want your number / data shared with Facebook.
WhatsApp TnC Option

You can read the full text of updated ‘Terms of Conditions’ about WhatsApp to shared user data with Facebook here.

About Thomas G

Thomas G is a founder and editor of Evenbright. He is a tech entusiast. Currently he is working as a Senior Software Developer in a travel company.