{"id":83333,"date":"2016-08-26T17:36:22","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T12:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.quickheal.com\/?p=83333"},"modified":"2016-08-30T11:50:47","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T06:20:47","slug":"whatsapp-to-share-your-phone-number-with-facebook-heres-how-you-can-opt-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/whatsapp-to-share-your-phone-number-with-facebook-heres-how-you-can-opt-out\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp to share your phone number with Facebook. Here\u2019s how you can prevent this"},"content":{"rendered":"

The privacy policy of WhatsApp has undergone some change as of 25th<\/sup> August 2016. And here are 10 things that you must know.<\/p>\n

1.<\/span> WhatsApp has announced that it will start sharing your phone number with its parent company Facebook (Facebook acquired WhatsApp back in February 2014). This news comes to light after the company updated its privacy policy.<\/p>\n

2.<\/span> As stated by WhatsApp in its recent blog post<\/a>, it is sharing your phone number with Facebook to \u201cimprove your Facebook ads and products experiences.\u201d This doesn\u2019t mean that you will start seeing advertisements on your WhatsApp app<\/strong>. But, you will start receiving more relevant ads on Facebook and get better friend suggestions.<\/p>\n

3.<\/span> The Privacy Policy<\/a> also states “By coordinating more with Facebook, we’ll be able to do things like track basic metrics about how often people use our services and better fight spam on WhatsApp.” This could mean <\/strong>that data such as your mobile\u2019s Operating System, mobile country code, carrier code, screen resolution, and device identifier will also be shared.<\/p>\n

4.<\/span> WhatsApp has stated that your number will be shared with the \u2018Facebook family of companies\u2019 – which most likely includes other Facebook acquired companies such as Instagram and VR firm Oculus Rift.<\/p>\n

5.<\/span> Now the big question – can you prevent WhatsApp from sharing your phone number with Facebook?<\/strong> Good news is, you can. WhatsApp is letting users opt out of this. Here\u2019s how to go about it:<\/p>\n

Option A
\n\u2022<\/strong>If you are using the latest WhatsApp app, then you will receive the below notification anytime while you are using the app. Don\u2019t tap on the \u2018Agree<\/strong>\u2019 button. Tap on \u201cRead more about the key updates to our Terms and Privacy Policy\u201d (fig 1).<\/p>\n

\"WhatsApp_sharing_phone_number_2\"<\/p>\n

Fig 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Uncheck the green box (fig 2).<\/p>\n

\"WhatsApp_sharing_phone_number_with_facebook\"<\/p>\n

Fig 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Unchecking means that you do not want WhatsApp to share your number and other data for Facebook ads and product-related purposes. Tap on ‘Agree<\/strong>‘ (fig 3).<\/p>\n

\"WhatsApp_sharing_phone_number_privacy_policy\"<\/p>\n

Fig 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

Option B
\n<\/strong>If you have already agreed to the new terms and conditions, you still have 30-days to reverse your decision.<\/p>\n

Open WhatsApp > go to Settings<\/strong> > Account<\/strong> > Uncheck the box given against \u201cShare my account info<\/strong>\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Opt_out_whatsapp_privacy_policy\"<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: If you do not see this option under Settings > Account, there\u2019s no need to panic. It means that you haven\u2019t updated to the latest version or you are yet to receive the notification about the new terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

6.<\/span> We need to understand that the above \u201copt-out\u201d procedure is partial. This only prevents WhatsApp from sharing your data for Facebook ads and product-related purposes. However, your data will still be shared for other purposes which the company puts as \u201cimproving infrastructure and delivery systems, understanding how our services or theirs are used, securing systems, and fighting spam, abuse, or infringement activities\u201d.<\/p>\n

7.<\/span> This data-sharing update does not affect your communication on WhatsApp (messages, photos, videos, voice messages, and calls) which continue to be encrypted. This means that they can only be viewed by you and the person you are sending them to.<\/p>\n

8.<\/span> Users who have agreed to the new terms and conditions still have 30-days to express their disagreement. Once this window expires, they won\u2019t be able to opt out.<\/p>\n

9.<\/span> WhatsApp hasn\u2019t provided a comprehensive list of the types of user data it intends to share with Facebook nor anything about how Facebook will be using this data.<\/p>\n

10.<\/span> WhatsApp will continue to be ad-free.<\/p>\n

But what if you don’t have a Facebook account?
\n<\/strong>Your number will still be shared with Facebook even if you are not on the social networking website. But a WhatsApp spokesperson has stated that even if Facebook has your number, it is of use because you don’t have an account there. Your number will not be used to create an account on your behalf.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We will be keeping track of this development and update this post accordingly.<\/p>\n

If you think this post is helpful, share<\/a> it with your friends and peers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources<\/span>:
\n\u2022 https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/technology\/2016\/08\/25\/whatsapps-new-privacy-policy-lets-it-share-your-phone-number-wit\/
\n\u2022<\/span>https:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/entry\/whatsapp-is-sharing-mobile-numbers-with-facebook-for-advertising-but-theres-a-partial-opt-out_uk_57bf1928e4b035d5604e9483<\/span>
\n\u2022 https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/tech\/internet\/whatsapps-new-privacy-policy-top-10-things-to-know\/articleshow\/53871426.cms<\/span>
\n\u2022 https:\/\/www.androidcentral.com\/whatsapp-will-start-sharing-your-phone-number-facebook-you-can-opt-out<\/span>
\n\u2022 https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/tech\/no-opting-out-of-this-one-whatsapp-will-send-all-phone-numbers-to-facebook\/story-Wiu7KYc9muNvMuNLVHRe3O.html<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The privacy policy of WhatsApp has undergone some change as of 25th August 2016. And here are 10 things that you must know. 1. WhatsApp has announced that it will start sharing your phone number with its parent company Facebook (Facebook acquired WhatsApp back in February 2014). This news comes to light after the company […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":83347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,32,41,4,773,842],"tags":[1243,282,160,254],"class_list":["post-83333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-android","category-apple","category-facebook","category-news","category-online-privacy-2","category-privacy","tag-data-privacy","tag-facebook-2","tag-privacy","tag-whatsapp"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83333"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83361,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83333\/revisions\/83361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickheal.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}