Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday June 14 2019, @08:50PM   Printer-friendly
from the don't-do-that! dept.

RT:

WhatsApp is threatening users who violate its rules with lawsuits, even if the only evidence of “rule-breaking” exists outside of the Facebook-owned messaging app and the only judge is an AI.

“WhatsApp will take legal action against those we determine are engaged in or assisting others in abuse… even if that determination is based on information solely available to us off our platform,” the company warned in an ominous FAQ entry posted on Monday.

The source is RT, but the FAQ linked in the excerpt does say that. Would we want Kellogg's surveilling us to make sure we're using their corn flakes properly?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14 2019, @10:40PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14 2019, @10:40PM (#855792)

    Perhaps it means "Monetize in a way that WhatsApp cannot, but wants to"?

  • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday June 15 2019, @12:24AM (1 child)

    by MostCynical (2589) on Saturday June 15 2019, @12:24AM (#855819) Journal

    1. set up lots of whatsapp accounts
    2. ??
    3. Profit!!

    just how are these 'abuse' accounts making money?
    If they are not making money, what are they doing?
    (note: companies like Uber have never made any money, but people are making/taking money out of it, so maybe investors or advertisers are being bilked?)

    Also, creating accounts should be easy for FB, using a server set up by a 'separate' company in an appropriate/tame country... maybe they just can't make the '??' bit work.
    Additionally, maybe some (powerful/connected) users are complaining about some messages...

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday June 15 2019, @01:02AM

      In addition to misspelling "Misuse," TFS somehow did not include the link to the WhatsApp FAQ Entry [whatsapp.com] mentioned:

      We recently detailed our on-platform capabilities to identify and ban accounts in this white paper: Stopping Abuse: How WhatsApp Fights Bulk Messaging and Automated Behavior [whatsapp.com]. We're aware that some companies attempt to evade our machine learning systems, even as we work tirelessly to improve them. Using the on-platform information available within WhatsApp we've found and stopped millions of abusive accounts from operating on our service.

      Apparently, WhatsApp *claims* (please note that this is my understanding of WhatsApp's FAQ entry. I am not making any claims on behalf of WhatsApp and not only have no idea if their claims have merit, but also I have *never* used WhatsApp, nor do I have *any* interest, financial or otherwise in the company or the service) that the issue is with "bulk messaging" (whatever that means. I could guess, but I won't) and automation of same.

      --
      No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr