Yesterday, WhatsApp announced that they will be sharing your personal information with Facebook to send you relevant ads. While your personal conversations will be encrypted and inaccessible to a third person, other details like your contact number will be accessible by Facebook. They say that this will help in sending you friend suggestions and relevant advertisements.
[ Also Read: Recent update in WhatsApp enables multi-sharing ]
It aims to emulate what SMS service from companies are doing now. It’s not too different from spamming, but the company ensures that there won’t be any third-party banners as of now. Other things like text message confirmations from banks and companies will also be tried by WhatsApp. If you don’t want to share the information that Facebook will be seeking from your WhatsApp account, then here’s a guide to stop Facebook from accessing your Whatsapp data.
How to stop Facebook from accessing your Whatsapp data | Option 1
When the update reaches you, the app will prompt you to accept the terms and conditions. The first screen won’t give you any option to enable or disable anything. So, before clicking AGREE, tap Read.
You will be given the option to share the information with Facebook. By default, it will be enabled. You have to just uncheck it and go ahead with the installation process.
How to stop Facebook from accessing your Whatsapp data | Option 2
In case you agreed to the T&C without unchecking the option, you can still disable it. You will be having 30 days to disable this after you clicked AGREE. Go to Settings > Account > Share my account info and disable it.
The blog post adds that your information can still be accessed by Facebook “for other purposes such as improving infrastructure and delivery systems, understanding how our services or theirs are used, securing systems, and fighting spam, abuse, or infringement activities.”
It means that no matter whatever you do, Facebook will be getting access to your personal information. But you won’t be disturbed any type of ads. If you haven’t received the update, you won’t find the option in Settings.