Facebook acquires WhatsApp. What does this mean for your Privacy?

When it comes to the subject of privacy, it’s safe to say that Facebook and WhatsApp have polar opposite ideologies.

One of WhatsApp’s core marketing strategies – and indeed one of the reasons why they have become the most successful messaging app out there – has been their capacity to refrain from using any part of a user’s personal information to subject them to any kind of targeted advertising.

Facebook on the other hand, not so much.

So now Facebook has acquired WhatsApp, what does this mean for the privacy of its users?

At this stage the answer is nothing. Both Facebook and WhatsApp have provided assurances that the pre-Facebook-acquisition and privacy-friendly terms of service for WhatsApp is still very much in effect.

We do not use your mobile phone number or other Personally Identifiable Information to send commercial or marketing messages without your consent or except as part of a specific program or feature for which you will have the ability to opt-in or opt-out.

Part of the terms of service, as it stands.

But this assurance hasn’t proved particularly assuring for many, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) who recently filed to the FTC requesting the $19 billion acquisition be halted until an investigation into the privacy ramifications be carried out.

It is no secret that the personal information of the 400 million plus WhatsApp users would be a goldmine to Facebook as they work on integrating the two services together. The ability to expose targeted advertisements to such a large and loyal userbase would significantly increase Facebooks revenue, even if it did mean losing a few members.

This fact, coupled with the knowledge that Facebook quickly altered the terms of service to Instagram when they acquired that service, has privacy activists wary.

There are plenty of vigilant eyes watching how things will progress, so Facebook are certainly going to have to tread carefully. This means that if Facebook are planning on altering those terms of service in the direction of anti-privacy, (or “sharing”, as Facebook calls it) then any quiet and sneaky changes will certainly be out of the question.

The bottom line here is that if you’re a WhatsApp user, it’s not quite the time to panic just yet. But if you get an email knocking at your door about changes to the terms of service, make sure you read it. Carefully.