OREANDA-NEWS. The management of Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, presented the audience of the popular messenger with a difficult choice. People can continue using the service only by agreeing to the new terms of service. And the new conditions imply that for a formally free application users will have to pay with the widest possible access to their personal data.

In early January, the WhatsApp messenger at the next launch began to give users a window with new terms of service. Without accepting them, it is impossible to correspond and call on WhatsApp. The key point of the ultimatum is that it will no longer be possible to refuse to provide users’ data to Facebook, and through it to advertisers.

In 2016, two years after the acquisition of WhatsApp in a 19 billion deal, Facebook once allowed users of the messenger to prohibit the provision of personal data to the social network, such as, for example, a phone number. Starting from February 1, 2021, users will no longer have this opportunity. Facebook will be able to integrate information from any WhatsApp accounts into its advertising platform, making it more attractive to advertisers.

This information of the two billion inhabitants of the planet, on whose devices WhatsApp is installed, will become the property of this social network: phone number, all numbers from the contact list, names specified in the profile, profile pictures, status, time of the last connection, as well as diagnostic information from the application logs.

Under the new rules, Facebook will be able to share user data with all applications of the corporation, which also include Instagram and Facebook Messenger. Information may also be provided to third-party companies - for example, if a user is texting WhatsApp with a business account.