
Privacy groups ask FTC to block Facebook-WhatsApp deal - rocky5
http://www.thegeekyglobe.com/privacy-groups-ask-ftc-to-block-facebook-whatsapp-deal.html
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enscr
The important part from the article is : _" until there is a clearer
understanding of how the company intends to use the personal data of
WhatsApp’s 450 million users"_

FB would be drooling over all the messages, pics & videos on Whatsapp. For
person-to-person communication, I prefer a paid app over an ad-supported free
one. If I wanted the latter, there are no shortage of options. I wonder how
Whatsapp spells out the usage of personal data in their ToS.

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kevcampb
Why not read the ToS? It's pretty clear and very user friendly. The short
version - they don't store your data, and there is no right for Facebook to
get that data historically.

That's not to say they can't change it in future, but I'm sure if they do
there will be a massive exodus from the network.

And to further clarify on your comment - whatsapp is a paid for app, not
advert supported. They only charge the iPhone users, however. Cost of the app
is $1 for iPhone. Suspect android users would never touch it, as they don't
have payment details set up on Google Play's store.

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happyscrappy
"In the event that WhatsApp is acquired by or merged with a third party
entity, we reserve the right to transfer or assign the information we have
collected from our users as part of such merger, acquisition, sale, or other
change of control."
[http://www.whatsapp.com/legal/](http://www.whatsapp.com/legal/)

~~~
kevcampb
"The contents of messages that have been delivered by the WhatsApp Service are
not copied, kept or archived by WhatsApp in the normal course of business."

followed by

"If the recipient is not online, the undelivered message is held in WhatsApp’s
server until it can be delivered. If the message is undelivered for thirty
(30) days, the undelivered message is deleted from our servers. Once a message
has been delivered, it no longer resides on our servers. The contents of any
delivered messages are not kept or retained by WhatsApp — the only records of
the content of any delivered messages reside directly on the sender’s and
recipient’s mobile devices (and which may be deleted at the user’s option)."

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chatman
Is there a legal way to stop Whatsapp from sharing my address book with
Facebook?

~~~
brandnewlow
Why do you think Facebook just paid $19b for them?

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koosa
Immediately after striking Facebook-WattsApp deal, Koum had mentioned in one
of his tweets that users' privacy and security is their top concern and I hope
he sticks to his guns.

~~~
nyrina
He wouldn't exactly go out and tell people he just sold all their messages and
address books, though, would he?

The message he wrote, was a message he had to write to keep customers using
WhatsApp

~~~
dhimes
Indeed. They may negotiate some privacy agreement in the sale (that is, fb and
the feds), but that agreement will likely expire in due course, as it becomes
a 'burden' to the business.

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kevcampb
Why would any privacy advocate want to block this deal? I can only see this
deal being beneficial for privacy in the long run.

Facebook are unable to collect data from the service without changing the ToS,
which will likely cause a user exodus.

It's going to put such a huge unrecoverable dent in Facebook's finances that
it will be a significant long term disadvantage to them.

If you are a privacy advocate, wait until the deal completes and then jump
ship and bring your friends with you.

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amirmc
> _"... without changing the ToS, which will likely cause a user exodus."_

How many people are even aware of what the ToS says? I don't recall a mass
exodus from Google when they merged their privacy policies so I don't expect
to see it here (for similar reasons - where would they go?).

Edit: > _"... then jump ship and bring your friends with you."_

You make it sound like this is easy. It isn't. That's why networks have value
and are hard to build.

~~~
Zikes
> You make it sound like this is easy. It isn't. That's why networks have
> value and are hard to build.

Exactly. Facebook sure isn't paying $19 billion for the ability to shuffle
words around from phone to phone.

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yuhong
This is why I asked about what happened to Mark Zuckerberg since the early
days of Facebook regarding privacy in a Reddit AMA.

~~~
sirkneeland
$200 billion happened to him, that's what...

~~~
yuhong
What do you mean?

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balladeer
I just hope WhatsApp doesn't hand over deleted accounts' data to Facebook!

