I am a bit confused over the whatsapp privacy update furore. Whatsapp say it’s only about business correspondence, Alec Muffet agrees, and so does the Independent Schneier thinks it’s a bad thing, and points at Nick Slatt’s article which adds to my confusion by pointing out that early users of whatsapp had the opportunity to deny Facsebook access to their data and that European users are managed under a different policy to ensure Facebook’s compliance with the GDPR. I am an early user and so they shouldn’t be mining my address book however they maybe doing so for my correspondents, particularly any US correspondents. However, I wonder if they or Facebook still consider the UK regime as equivalent to that of European Union, the Independent article confirms it does. I don’t consider the update notice to be a collection of consent that is freely given nor ‘informed’, as the future purpose is not clear, at least not to me but I may not have to worry yet. The problem is Facebook, both the company and the service, if we’re serious about our privacy, we’d stop using it but until then they can obey the law.
Whatsapp?