Take or leave. WhatsApp gave an aut to the billions of users of their app, who will have to agree to share their data with Facebook (and the companies of the group), otherwise they will no longer be able to use the app . This does not mean that you will need to have a Facebook account to use the app, but that the data collected via WhatsApp will be shared between different entities in the group led by Mark Zuckerberg.

Actually, before going into the explanation of what is happening, a clarification must be made : in Europe the situation is slightly different compared to the rest of the world due to much more restrictive laws on privacy and data sharing. Just compare the message sent to Italian and foreign users, outside the EU borders, to see that there is a point where we talk about “how we collaborate with Facebook to offer integrations in the entire Facebook company “.

In any case, this is an update of the privacy policies to which WhatsApp and Facebook (owner of the app ) had been thinking for a long time, but their imposition had been postponed. From 2016 WhatsApp allowed users to decide (within 30 days) whether or not they wish to share their data with Facebook , but this possibility will disappear from next month. Among the data that WhatsApp collects we find the telephone numbers of the users, the numbers of the contacts in the address book, the profile names, profile pictures, transaction and payment data, statuses (including last online presence) and diagnostic data collected from logs.

“As part of companies of Facebook, WhatsApp receives information from these companies and shares it with other Facebook companies. We may use the information that we receive from them, and vice versa they may use the information we share with them, to make available, provide, improve, understand, personalize, support and market our Services and their offerings, including products from Facebook companies “.

“ Currently, WhatsApp only shares certain types of information with Facebook companies The information we share with other companies d Facebooks include account registration information (such as phone number), transaction data, service-related information, information on how you interact with other users (including businesses) when using our Services, information about your mobile device and your IP address “.

That said, the merger between Facebook and WhatsApp after the acquisition of the 2014 is destined to become more and more (but on the other hand we must certainly not be surprised) as evidenced by the notice in the app in which you are invited to sign the changes to the WhatsApp terms of service by February 8 . WhatsApp users now have three options : accept the new terms (and thus become aware of the fact that WhatsApp is from Facebook), stop using the app (switching to Telegram, Signal or other alternatives) or delete your account.