Tech expert: Facebook ‘going step too far’ with WhatsApp privacy changes
The editor of Stuff Magazine Toby Shapshack says Facebook has gone a step too far by forcing WhatsApp users to share data with the company.
The popular messaging platform WhatsApp is updating its terms and conditions section in an attempt to further promote further Facebook integration.
The new Ts and Cs are compulsory and users will have to agree that WhatsApp can share their data with the tech company or they face losing access to their accounts.
According to the company, these changes will officially come into effect from 8 February. So any user who has not agreed to the new terms will no longer be able to use the messaging service from the date.
Many users have already seen the pop-up message and clicked the 'agree' button without reading the terms, while others have opted to use alternative chat services like Signal or Telegram.
Shapshack says Facebook is one of the greatest proponents of what is now known as surveillance capital.
"The more they know us the more they can tell advertisers and the more they can tailor their advertising to us.
"Clearly what they are doing is consolidating data into Facebook. When Facebook bought WhatsApp they said they would do what they have subsequently done.
"So Facebook has been very duplicitous in how they gathered extra information from us," Shapshack said.
Shapshack says some 48 states in the USA have put a case against Facebook in a bid to break up the conglomerate that is Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram.