It was already talked about since the beginning of December. Now, slowly, WhatsApp is submitting to all users, including in Italy, i changes to its internal rules. Specifically related to data management which, in essence, they will end up on all servers of the Facebook group, in the name of maximum interoperability and ever closer integration. FromFebruary 8 the new terms of use or service will come into force, if you prefer, introduced on January 4th. Therefore it will be necessary to accept them by that date, within which the dedicated notice will be released on the app used by over two billion people, to continue using the most widespread chat in the world.
Conversely, you will be cut off from the platform.
The notification indicates two updates in particular: the methods of data processing and those through which companies, which increasingly use WhatsApp to sell and provide assistance to customers, can use the services available on Facebook to store and manage their own chat on WhatsApp. Basically since February conversations on WhatsApp with profiles of companies or other businesses and professionals can also be managed by Facebook and the other apps of the giant by Mark Zuckerberg, as we said on the road to total integration. A very different path from the one that the giant had guaranteed the regulators six years ago, when it bought the application for 19 billion dollars in cash and shares.
In short, WhatsApp as we know it does not change. If not in the different features that are launched month after month, from disappearing messages to videochat also on the desktop versions. The news is all about business: databases are pooled to the advantage of merchants, who will be able to jump from one platform to another and manage relationships with customers in a more linear way. In terms of advertising, however, the company reassures users: “Facebook will not automatically use your messages to influence the advertisements you see, but businesses will be able to use the chats received for marketing purposes, which could include advertising on Facebook ‘. In short, the contents of those exchanges will not be read or analyzed by Facebook but the same shopkeepers or companies that use the chat will obviously be able to extrapolate what they want to calibrate their advertising strategy. With i integrated databases, it is now easier to allow them to set up campaigns simultaneously on all home products: not only WhatsApp and Facebook but also Instagram, where e-commerce is one of the new hot fronts, but also the shops on Facebook, Oculus and other applications like Boomerang or Threads.
To be exchanged between the different creatures of the Californian group will not only be telephone numbers and contacts, name and images but also metadata, i.e. duration, frequency, and other information (transactions, devices, IP address, and so on) regarding our conversations with the clothing chain’s customer service department, the pizza delivery man or the artisan we made a purchase from. From big brands as to very small local entrepreneurs, who are the majority of advertisers who bring the bulk of advertising revenues to Facebook. Making them run better, and getting them to do better deals, means pushing them to buy more advertising.
The consent of the users is therefore obligatory. Accept or leave. Yet giving up an application like the most used chat in the world is not exactly easy. Elon Musk, the owner of SpaceX and Tesla, just suggested downloading Signal, the super-secure and alternative messaging app very attentive to privacy, which in fact after the endorsement of the richest man in the world on social media has seen a surge in downloads. But the alternatives are still many, as we see in the gallery, even if you always have to pay close attention to the conditions of use in order not to risk slipping into even less guaranteed digital contexts.
“There are no changes to the methods of sharing WhatsApp data in the European Region, including the United Kingdom, resulting from the update of the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy – a spokesperson for WhatsApp said yesterday – we do not share the data of the users of the European area with Facebook in order to allow Facebook to use such data to improve its products or advertisements ». In fact: Facebook will not be directly exploiting them but companies, putting them to good use in a simpler way.
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