WhatsApp’s new policy
WhatsApp, which belongs to the American giant Facebook, announced on Thursday that its users must agree to share part of their personal data with Facebook. If they decide not to accept this proposal, they will simply no longer be able to use the communication application. The WhatsApp data collected by Facebook would concern in particular the telephone number, the IP address making it possible to partially locate the user, but also other information on which WhatsApp has remained rather elusive for the moment.
Indeed, on the Facebook side, it seems that there is a desire to bring these two messaging systems closer together. However, the main reason is obviously also commercial in that access to this data would then allow Facebook to be able to offer personalized advertisements.
Following this announcement, several users therefore stopped using the application in protest and would have gone to alternative messaging services such as Telegram or Signal, applications currently at the top of downloads. Indeed, in addition to constituting alternatives, the latter would seem to be more secure in terms of the protection of personal data since they would collect very little. These different platforms and in particular Signal are thus recommended by personalities such as the American businessman Elon Musk but also the whistleblower Edward Snowden.
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