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WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

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Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

#61

Post by jcfrei »

sumitgt wrote: post #57
steinsgate wrote: post #45

What's the value of WhatsApp? It is the scale of the product. I use it because most of my friends are on it. There are many other alternatives to WhatsApp as pointed out by many in this thread, but none of them have nearly the same traction. The only business model that allows such scale is the ad supported model. If WhatsApp was subscription based, I am sure they could not have achieved this scale. And I wouldn't ha…

WhatsApp is Ad supported? I don't think so. I believe until last year they were subscription based.

They were and sometime last year turned everybody's subscription into a lifetime subscription. I think it's only a matter of time until WhatsApp will show ads. I see more and more content being shared through it - eventually it will rival Facebook.

Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

#62

Post by segmondy »

This has been going on for the longest. My Facebook is for family and friends and no coworkers. Google+ and Linkedin for coworkers. I have some of my coworkers phone numbers, and have never exchanged whatsApp messages with them. About earlier this year they all started showing up on my Facebook suggestions. I don't have Facebook app, I only use it through the web interface so it's not like they got to scan my contacts. This leads me to strongly believe that WhatsApp is the culprit.

Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

#63

Post by intoverflow2 »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #20

I'm like 99% certain they've been doing this for a while. I've noticed that anybody I talk to using WhatsApp quickly appears as a suggested contact on Facebook. As far as I'm aware, I did nothing to enable this. It does seem awfully creepy, but I guess if you care about privacy you're not using Facebook much anyway…

> It does seem awfully creepy

Everything about Facebook is, I deleted my account 4 years ago. Opened another one with a different email address last week. It instantly started suggesting people who I knew despite me not entering anything other than an email and phone number.

It's super creepy how it pretty much already knows who you are from data your friends have shared with it.

Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

#65

Post by intoverflow2 »

aquratic wrote: post #19

What happens if a whatsapp user doesn't have a Facebook account? More interestingly, what if a someone never uses FB account on his/her phone, like I do?

They store the data until you do (or until you register with a future FB product), if you finally get one they'll link the two together and already have an extensive profile of your behaviour they can now match with an FB profile.

Having the FB account is just the last piece of the puzzle, they already know who you are if you use Insta and WhatsApp

Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

#66

Post by forgottenpass »

Remember when Whatsapp got bought?

    Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp
    around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible [...]
    If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values,
    we wouldn’t have done it. Instead, we are forming a partnership 
    that would allow us to continue operating independently and autonomously.
    Our fundamental values and beliefs will not change. Our principles
    will not change. Everything that has made WhatsApp the leader in
    personal messaging will still be in place. Speculation to the 
    contrary isn’t just baseless and unfounded, it’s irresponsible. [0]
Well, good news for them. They never outlined what exactly their principles were, so they weren't technically lying. We just get to see how thin their principles (retroactively) turn out to be.

[0] https://blog.whatsapp.com/529/Setting-the-record-straight

Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

#67

Post by franole »

It's really sad how we lost control of our data.

I always refused to inform my phone number to facebook. But they definitely try to guess it . It's funny how sometimes the FB app ask me "is xxxx xxxx your number?" Well, luckily it still has not succeeded.

Once, I grabbed one of those guessed numbers and asked (over SMS) to that unknown person what was his name. It was no surprise when he told me that we have the same name and our surname started with the same letter.

I think now they will stop guessing.

Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

#68

Post by jamiesonbecker »

creshal wrote: post #59
fractallyte wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A microwave oven works really well... Only takes (literally!) 1 second. OK, 2 if you want to be thorough.

It's flashy, but does it really destroy the charge in the cells?

Why make everything so difficult? So many options that it's hard to choose: EMP, solar storms, lightning, pyroclastic flows.. just stand right next to any cataclysmic cosmic event and you'll be taken care of.

Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

#69

Post by creshal »

2T1Qka0rEiPr wrote: post #60
creshal wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> OK, but a messenger app's usefulness is almost entirely (as with social networks) governed by its network effects. You can have the best tool in the world, but if no one uses it, it's worthless. That's what we have been struggling with since the mid-90s, yes. IRC will always exists, but past that?

+1 for the suggestion of IRC being the best messaging app!

It hasn't the best user experience, but it's the only one I've been able to consistently use for the past 15 or so years. (Yes, yes, I was late to the party, I know.)

Re: WhatsApp is going to share your phone number with Facebook

#70

Post by rorykoehler »

dhimes wrote: post #46
kirkdouglas wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They removed paid subscription several months ago. It seems that they can make more money from matching WhatsApp and Facebook social graphs than from annual subscription.

That's truly remarkable. Facebook doesn't make that much money per users (about $1/user/month, as best as I can figure). I know people who would pay twice that for a privacy-keeping subscription tier.

Do you know 2 billion people who would pay more than that for their privacy?
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