That viral WhatsApp warning is wrong – but the app does have privacy concerns
Klosowski told Africa Check: 'I think it's important to think through how much data the company collects – everything it can – and what it uses it for – mostly to sell advertising. That broad collection of data consolidated with one company gives them a lot of power, and it's not always clear to people just how much the company collects.'
Meta, with which WhatsApp shares data, mostly uses the information it collects for advertising, linking data from Whatsapp with your activity on other apps and across the web. (Meta will soon introduce ads to WhatsApp itself.)
This means the company could, for example, use the information that you sent a message on WhatsApp from Johannesburg on a phone with a short battery life, along with other device information, to show you an advert for a new phone with a long battery life while you are browsing the web on your laptop.
Tech outlet Futurism has also reported that Facebook has previously taken advantage of what it called 'moments of psychological vulnerability', like stress or body image issues, to target advertising at certain users, including teenagers.
Knowles pointed out some other, more direct privacy concerns: 'If Meta is hacked, your unencrypted data, like your IP address or chat backups, could be exposed.' The same would be true of your personal messages if your cloud storage provider were hacked.
Meta may also hand over data to governments in response to legal requests. And for sensitive communications, even a small amount of information can be extremely revealing.
Klosowski said: 'With WhatsApp and chat messaging apps specifically, the metadata of who you are communicating with and when can reveal a lot about who you are, where you are, and what your needs may be.' While this kind of data may not seem important in the moment, he emphasised that this 'can be worrisome for some in the future if legal or personal situations change'.
The EFF offers examples of how this might work. It could, for instance, be determined that someone 'called a gynecologist, spoke for a half hour, and then called the local abortion clinic's number later that day'.
This is data that is collected from all WhatsApp users, even those who do not engage with Meta AI. But Meta's chatbot comes with additional privacy concerns.
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That viral WhatsApp warning is wrong – but the app does have privacy concerns
While WhatsApp does not collect message content, there are situations in which this could be exposed to third parties. For example, Knowles told us that if you chose to back up copies of your chat history to a cloud storage provider, such as Google Drive or iCloud, these might be unencrypted (or unlocked), and the contents accessible to your cloud service provider. Klosowski told Africa Check: 'I think it's important to think through how much data the company collects – everything it can – and what it uses it for – mostly to sell advertising. That broad collection of data consolidated with one company gives them a lot of power, and it's not always clear to people just how much the company collects.' Meta, with which WhatsApp shares data, mostly uses the information it collects for advertising, linking data from Whatsapp with your activity on other apps and across the web. (Meta will soon introduce ads to WhatsApp itself.) This means the company could, for example, use the information that you sent a message on WhatsApp from Johannesburg on a phone with a short battery life, along with other device information, to show you an advert for a new phone with a long battery life while you are browsing the web on your laptop. Tech outlet Futurism has also reported that Facebook has previously taken advantage of what it called 'moments of psychological vulnerability', like stress or body image issues, to target advertising at certain users, including teenagers. Knowles pointed out some other, more direct privacy concerns: 'If Meta is hacked, your unencrypted data, like your IP address or chat backups, could be exposed.' The same would be true of your personal messages if your cloud storage provider were hacked. Meta may also hand over data to governments in response to legal requests. And for sensitive communications, even a small amount of information can be extremely revealing. Klosowski said: 'With WhatsApp and chat messaging apps specifically, the metadata of who you are communicating with and when can reveal a lot about who you are, where you are, and what your needs may be.' While this kind of data may not seem important in the moment, he emphasised that this 'can be worrisome for some in the future if legal or personal situations change'. The EFF offers examples of how this might work. It could, for instance, be determined that someone 'called a gynecologist, spoke for a half hour, and then called the local abortion clinic's number later that day'. This is data that is collected from all WhatsApp users, even those who do not engage with Meta AI. But Meta's chatbot comes with additional privacy concerns.
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