It’s Business As Usual At WhatsApp

WhatsApp users have recently started seeing a new pop-up screen requiring them to agree to its new terms and privacy policy by February 8th in order to keep using the app. 

The good news is that, overall, this update does not make any extreme changes to how WhatsApp shares data with its parent company Facebook. The bad news is that those extreme changes actually happened over four years ago, when WhatsApp updated its privacy policy in 2016 to allow for significantly more data sharing and ad targeting with Facebook. What’s clear from the reaction to this most recent change is that WhatsApp shares much more information with Facebook than many users were aware, and has been doing so since 2016. And that’s not users’ fault: WhatsApp’s obfuscation and misdirection around what its various policies allow has put its users in a losing battle to understand what, exactly, is happening to their data.

This new terms of service and the privacy policy are one more step in Facebook’s long-standing effort to monetize its messaging properties, and are also in line with its plans to make WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct less separate. This brings serious privacy and competition concerns, including but not limited to WhatsApp’s ability to share new information with Facebook about users’ interactions with new shopping and payment products.

To be clear: WhatsApp still uses strong end-to-end encryption, and there is no reason to doubt the security of the contents of your messages on WhatsApp. The issue here is other data about you, your messages, and your use of the app. We still offer guides for WhatsApp (for iOS and Android) in our Surveillance Self-Defense resources, as well as for Signal (for iOS and Android).

Then and Now

This story really starts in 2016, when WhatsApp changed its privacy policy for the first time since its 2014 acquisition to allow Facebook access to several kinds of WhatsApp user data, including phone numbers and usage metadata (e.g. information about how long and how often you use the app, as well as your operating system, IP address, mobile network, etc.). Then, as now, public statements about the policy highlighted how this sharing would help WhatsApp users communicate with businesses and receive more “relevant” ads on Facebook.

At the time, WhatsApp gave users a limited option to opt out of the change. Specifically, users had 30 days after first seeing the 2016 privacy policy notice to opt out of “shar[ing] my WhatsApp account information with Facebook to improve my Facebook ads and product experiences.” The emphasis is ours; it meant that WhatsApp users were able to opt out of seeing visible changes to Facebook ads or Facebook friend recommendations, but could not opt out of the data collection and sharing itself.

If you were a WhatsApp user in August 2016 and opted out within the 30-day grace period, that choice will still be in effect. You can check by going to the “Account” section of your settings and selecting “Request account info.” The more than one billion users who have joined since then, however, did not have the option to refuse this expanded sharing of their data, and have been subject to the 2016 policy this entire time.

Now, WhatsApp is changing the terms again. The new terms and privacy policy are mainly concerned with how businesses on WhatsApp can store and host their communications. This is happening as WhatsApp plans to roll out new commerce tools in the app like Facebook Shops. Taken together, this renders the borders between WhatsApp and Facebook (and Facebook-owned Instagram) even more permeable and ambiguous. Information about WhatsApp users’ interactions with Shops will be available to Facebook, and can be used to target the ads you see on Facebook and Instagram. On top of the WhatsApp user data Facebook already has access to, this is one more category of information that can now be shared and used for ad targeting. And there’s still no meaningful way to opt-out.

So when WhatsApp says that its data sharing practices and policies haven’t changed, it is correct—and that’s exactly the problem. Those practices and policies have represented an erosion of Facebook’s and WhatsApp’s original promises to keep the apps separate for over four years now, and these new products mean the scope of data that WhatsApp has access to, and can share with Facebook, is only expanding. 

All of this looks different for users in the EU, who are protected by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. The GDPR prevents WhatsApp from simply passing on user data to Facebook without the permission of its users. As user consent must be freely given, voluntary, and unambiguous, the all-or-nothing consent framework that appeared to many WhatsApp users last week is not allowed. Tying consent for a performance of a service—in this case, private communication on WhatsApp—to additional data processing by Facebook—like shopping, payments, and data sharing for targeted advertising—violates the “coupling prohibition” under the GDPR.

The Problems with Messenger Monetization

Facebook has been looking to monetize its messaging properties for years. WhatsApp’s 2016 privacy policy change paved the way for Facebook to make money off it, and its recent announcements and changes point to a monetization strategy focused on commercial transactions that span WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram.

Offering a hub of services on top of core messaging functionality is not new—LINE and especially WeChat are two long-standing examples of “everything apps”—but it is a problem for privacy and competition, especially given WhatsApp’s pledge to remain a “standalone” product from Facebook. Even more dangerously, this kind of mission creep might give those who would like to undermine secure communications another pretense to limit, or demand access to, those technologies.

With three major social media and messaging properties in its “family of companies”—WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct—Facebook is positioned to blur the lines between various services with anticompetitive, user-unfriendly tactics. When WhatsApp bundles new Facebook commerce services around the core messaging function, it bundles the terms users must agree to as well. The message this sends to users is clear: regardless of what services you choose to interact with (and even regardless of whether or when those services are rolled out in your geography), you have to agree to all of it or you’re out of luck. We’ve addressed similar user choice issues around Instagram’s recent update.

After these new shopping and payment features, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect WhatsApp to drift toward even more data sharing for advertising and targeting purposes. After all, monetizing a messenger isn’t just about making it easier for you to find businesses; it’s also about making it easier for businesses to find you.

Facebook is no stranger to building and then exploiting user trust. Part of WhatsApp’s immense value to Facebook was, and still is, its reputation for industry-leading privacy and security. We hope that doesn’t change any further.