Since then, Facebook has bought Whatsapp for $19 billion in 2014, there have been more and more updates and so on. The latest in this trend is WhatsApp’s ability to give Facebook your number. Whatsapp wants to share your number and other data with Facebook so the parent company can do analytics to make Facebook more personal.
“If we coordinate more closely with Facebook, we can, for example, collect basic metrics about how often users use our services and better fight spam on WhatsApp,” WhatsApp said in a blog.
How Facebook and WhatsApp work together
Facebook and WhatsApp share several similarities, including allowing users to make both voice and video calls through their apps. Although calls over Wi-Fi are free, calls over cellular networks are subject to data caps. In any case, Facebook and WhatsApp offer a better alternative than other video chat apps. Plus the former offering it Messenger and WhatsApp as free downloads
While all of these freebies from both social media platforms seem like a welcome deal. However, we cannot overlook the fact that Facebook attracts more users through free solutions and accesses both services and registers billions of users – enough for the social network to make a significant contribution through advertising.
For example, sharing your contact on Facebook means you will receive friend requests from people you talk to in WhatsApp. You will also receive ads that are personally targeted to you based on data retrieved from WhatsApp. The full WhatsApp privacy policy can be found here. While the content of WhatsApp messages such as words and images is end-to-end encrypted and cannot be read by the app, it does contain data such as phone numbers and information about users’ phones and operating systems.
Also, keep in mind that Facebook said it wouldn’t reveal phone numbers by showing them on its profiles, but would use the data to improve its friend suggestion algorithm.
Accepting the policy means that users who have your phone number saved on their phone may see your profile in friend suggestions because Facebook is now able to associate your phone number with your account.
How to stop WhatsApp from sharing your number with Facebook
There are two ways to prevent WhatsApp from sharing your number with Facebooks. You can either:
A. Read the Terms and Conditions
This is one of those times that skipping the terms and conditions and clicking agree will inevitably cost you something. After updating your WhatsApp (which you should do immediately), read the terms of service. Scroll all the way down. There is a checkbox that allows WhatsApp to share your number with Facebook. Clear the check box.
B. WhatsApp settings
Now we are sure that some have updated their WhatsApp without checking the terms and conditions. If you are one of them, there is no need to panic. All you have to do is change your WhatsApp settings. When you go to your WhatsApp settings, tap “Account”, go to “Share my account information” and uncheck the box that allows WhatsApp to share your number with Facebook.
However, WhatsApp did not send the update permission request to all users. If you have not been prompted to accept the terms, you are not currently affected by the changes.
Facebook and WhatsApp have achieved great success as social media networks. Both are platform independent; They can be used for Androids, the web and iOS. Even if users decide to switch to another platform, they can start calling or chatting with a new device immediately. Users can also participate in group chats and are not limited to the number of messages they can send to others.