The California giant last month delayed implementation of a new policy which critics said could expand data collection from some two billion WhatsApp users around the world. A WhatsApp blog post cited "confusion" over the policy update and maintained that it "does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook." The update concerns how merchants using WhatsApp to chat with customers can share data with Facebook, which could use the information for targeted ads, according to the social network. "The original sin was purchasing WhatsApp and folding it into the business model of Facebook which monetises all the data they have," Calo said. Indicating that WhatsApp users could no longer opt out last month, "was a little insulting to people's intelligence," said Gennie Gebhart, a privacy researcher with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Source: The Star February 12, 2021 02:26 UTC