WhatsApp’s new privacy policy made the news at the beginning of this year: The update enables the messenger app sharing more commercial user data and metadata with its parent company Facebook. The reveal of its adapted policy caused a global backlash, followed by a significant slump in user numbers and WhatsApp trying to add clarity with more detailed information and even using its own Status messages.
And there is already more to come. In these first couple of weeks of 2021, Facebook itself has also caught the attention of the media, with tensions between Facebook and Apple now reaching a new level. Apple announced its plans to give users the ability to stop apps from tracking their data across the web, which should go into effect this spring. A direct threat at Facebook’s lucrative advertising business.
Tech-Knights in shining armour
So is Apple chivalrously defending its user’s privacy while Facebook is (once again) the villain in this story? Unfortunately, it is not that simple.
Every big company and their services have its own way to secure personal data or metadata – e.g. how often you message someone and when. Facebook and its apps like WhatsApp and Instagram collect information through the usage of their apps and many details like employment, family, hair colour, home location etc. Apple, on the other hand, leverages email addresses and iTunes accounts as well as credit card data and usage when the user purchases anything through an Apple device or system.
Not to forget another important tech giant, Google with its vast amount of products, which compiles information with YouTube, Gmail, Search and much more.
You have a question on your company’s security level or enhancing your data protection? Let us know.
Data, quo vadis?
What can happen with all this data is known ever since Cambridge Analytica hit the headlines 2018. Also referred to as the turning point for consumer data. As seen in the latest developments when millions of users ditched WhatsApp due to its planned privacy policy update within a few days, users get more and more cautious about where their data goes. And it is not only the individual user, but also companies and their employees in their professional lives that want and need to understand what happens when they share corporate details on messenger apps.
Tracking digital footprints
Long story short, users want to know what they are signing up for. And they have to. The amount of data created world-wide and by individual has exploded over the last few years. Everyone now leaves a live-long digital footprint and a growing number of users is less and less forgiving when it comes to granting excessive permissions on their data.
Which is crucial to keep in mind for any company or organisation offering an app to their customers. Apps need to be careful with the permissions that they are requesting from their users and making sure that their privacy and other related policies are constantly updated and secure.