Opt Out…While You Can

 WhatsApp and Facebook are hoping you don’t read their new TOS.

In a blog entry  posted today with the misleadingly innocuous but I suppose technically  accurate title “Looking ahead for WhatsApp,” the company explains that  they intend to begin “coordinating more with Facebook.” This includes  sharing your phone number with Facebook in order to better tailor ads to  you. Since there is no possible way this can be good for us, the users,  it’s time to opt out.

If  you’ve never used WhatsApp, it’s essentially a free messaging service  that is tied to your phone number. Since it uses data, WhatsApp  blossomed in the days when text messages were metered at absurd rates by  the wireless telcos. And though one could argue that iMessage,  Snapchat, and a bevy of others have made it less relevant over time,  WhatsApp still boasts more than 1 billion  monthly active users and 40+ billion messages exchanged daily. The  service is particularly popular abroad, with large percentages of users  in Latin America, Africa, and Europe. (In the US, Facebook Messenger is more popular; in Asia, WeChat rules the roost.)

Facebook bought  WhatsApp back in 2014 for a whopping $19 billion, and has left it  relatively undisturbed in the interim. They even dropped the previous  $1/year fee, opening it up to everyone in the world at no cost. But the  free ride, as they all eventually do, has now come to an end. Though  WhatsApp had previously pledged not to show ads — going as far as to invoke the violent anticonsumerism of Fight Club  (1999) — the corporate ethos there seems to have changed in the wake of  being gobbled up by Facebook. Given the vague language of the post, I’m  not really sure whether or how they intend to show ads within WhatsApp,  but it wouldn’t surprise me if ads start popping up sometime soon.

What  is very clear is that WhatsApp is going to share its users’ phone  numbers with Facebook, and “connect” their two accounts, in order to  “show [users] more relevant ads.” Cue some well-deserved eye rolls. I  frankly do not give a damn about the relevancy of the legion of ads that  are crammed down my throat every day. In fact, modern digital  advertising creeps me out so much that I use an ad blocker, AdGuard, to limit these companies’ ability to track me online. I recommend that you do the same.

You  should also be sure to opt out of this proposed WhatsApp-Facebook  integration while there’s still time. The process for doing so is  nothing less than surreal.  You need to uncheck a box (which is, of course, checked by default)  indicating that you want your number shared. But that box only appears  once, and only then if you ignore a giant, green button marked “ACCEPT”  and instead choose a small, nondescript link at the bottom to “Read  more.” Once you’ve done that, you need to uncheck a box to “Share my  WhatsApp account information with Facebook.” If you, like most people,  already passed this screen, you can go to Settings > Account > Share my account info  and uncheck the relevant box. But be aware that, for no legitimate  reason whatsoever, you only have 30 days to do this from the time you  first hit the ACCEPT button.

Since  no sane person would choose to read hundreds of pages of legal  gobbledygook just for fun, this is clearly Facebook’s veiled attempt to  opt us all into something very few of us would knowingly choose. Obfuscating  and time-limiting the opt-out mechanism is a disgrace, plain and  simple. And it shows you exactly the level of respect Facebook (and by  extension, WhatsApp) have for you and your privacy.

If you use WhatsApp, fire it up and opt out of this nonsense. Or better yet, switch to Signal  or another app that protects your privacy. Because something tells me  that we shouldn’t expect these foxes to do any better guarding the  henhouse in the future.

https://thereasonableperson.com/opt-out-while-you-can-5b19b2096f55#.q2pp2n8ib