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WhatsApp: Let us share your data with Facebook or else:
In a surprise move, WhatsApp recently gave many of its users a difficult choice: they could either accept a revised privacy policy that explicit[sic] allowed the service to share information with parent company Facebook by February 8th, or decline and risk not being able to use the service at all.
[...] Upon further inspection, the updated policy makes clear that data collected by WhatsApp — including user phone numbers, "transaction data, service-related information, information on how you interact with others (including businesses) when using our Services , mobile device information, your IP address" and more are subject to be shared with other properties owned and controlled by Facebook.
"As part of the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information (see here) with, the other Facebook Companies," the updated privacy policy reads. "We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings, including the Facebook Company Products."
[...] The shift appears to be a dramatic about-face for WhatsApp, a company that contends "respect for your privacy" is coded into its DNA and made end-to-end encryption standard across all chats as of 2016.
Additionally, Signal sees surge in new signups after boost from Elon Musk and WhatsApp controversy:
Encrypted messaging app Signal says it's seeing a swell of new users signing up for the platform, so much so that the company is seeing delays in phone number verifications of new accounts across multiple cell providers.
As for what or who is responsible for so many new users interested in trying the platform, which is operated by the nonprofit Signal Foundation, there are two likely culprits: Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Signal competitor WhatsApp.
[...] WhatsApp has outlined a new privacy policy going into effect next month that no longer includes language indicating it will allow users to opt out of data sharing with parent company Facebook. Instead, the new policy expressly outlines how WhatsApp will share data (stuff like your phone number, profile name, and address book info) with Facebook.
Two anonymous submitters also pointed us to this story.
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2021, @04:54AM (2 children)
Holy crap. First you dump on sms for being some rickety "old man's tool" then you argue about changing your phone number? My god! The reason you have a cell phone is so you can TAKE YOUR PHONE NUMBER WITH YOU. Nobody has to change phone numbers anymore. You can lose your phone, switch to another cell phone provider, and wait for it... KEEP YOUR PHONE NUMBER!!! Or do you even know that there's this thing called a mic and speaker that allows you to (gasp) TALK WITH A PHONE! I know! It's practically magic! You're life is tied to that number and it's not so you can use SMS messaging.
You now what SMS does? It just works. Like on every phone ever made from android to iphone. It's built into the protocol that allows cell phones to communicate with towers. Without it you're phone simply wouldn't work as soon as you move from one tower coverage to the next. Don't blame SMS for greedy fuck phone providers who saw a way to squeeze dollars out of customers for a free ride.
If you want to rail against the machine why don't you yell and Apple and Google for failing to promote a common protocol for seamlessly messaging over wifi. Both of them have that power. Neither of them have done anything about it. Oh sure, iphones seamlessly use wifi for messaging. But only with other iphones. And android, well sometimes I wonder if google even cares anymore.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday January 11 2021, @07:05PM (1 child)
Are you really this stupid? You can't "take your phone number with you" when you go to a different country. I guess you're one of those morons who's never left the US.
As for Apple and Google, the blame there is with Apple for making their messaging app iPhone-only. Forcing people into their walled garden and refusing to interoperate just isn't Google's typical MO. Android phones let you change all kinds of things to 3rd-party apps, even the dialer, and of course the web browser. iPhones don't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @03:54AM
That's only true if you're an American on Verizon or Sprint (which use CDMA). But Americans on T-Mobile or AT&T (which use GSM) can generally roam in other countries with no problem, besides the roaming fees. For extended stays in other countries, I can buy a local SIM card (GSM) and pop it into my T-Mobile phone. But that doesn't work with a Verizon phone.
When my wife visits the states, her Turkcell (GSM) phone & SIM work fine here, and they have generous international roaming plans available.