Discussion

• @whatsapp @whatsapp on x

  Thank you to everyone who's reached out. We're still working to counter any confusion by communicating directly with @WhatsApp users. No one will have their account suspended or deleted on Feb 8 and we'll be moving back our business plans until after May - https://blog.whatsapp.c…

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  NEWS: WhatsApp delays privacy changes amid a backlash and user exodus https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @techcrunch @techcrunch on x

  WhatsApp delays new data-sharing policy enforcement to May 15 https://techcrunch.com/... by @refsrc

• @tomwarren Tom Warren on x

  I think people are only confused about this because they don't trust Facebook https://twitter.com/...

• @sdw Sebastiaan de With on x

  We, the users, have the power. Facebook knows this, and they're scared. Unethical businesses do not win by default if we work together. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @dangillmor Dan Gillmor on x

  WhatsApp isn't delaying anything. Since Facebook owns WhatsApp, Facebook is delaying the new policy. https://twitter.com/...

• @benadida Ben Adida on x

  I always wanted a world where privacy would become a competitive advantage. I'm not convinced it will ever be more important than that awesome new feature users want, but if one can build a great competitor that is *also* private, then yeah, maybe that wins. So good. https://twit…

• @cennydd @cennydd on x

  Strong sow/reap dynamic here. The changes were nowhere near as bad as people believed, but people's beliefs were strongly shaped by misinformation on Facebook. https://twitter.com/...

• @zingales @zingales on x

  .@WhatsApp is forced to delay its announced reduction in privacy https://blog.whatsapp.com/... by a massive migration of customers to @signalapp and @telegram. @DinaSrinivasan was right: competition protects privacy https://papers.ssrn.com/...

• @shivaroor Shiv Aroor on x

  Whatsapp yields, postpones its new India terms of service for 4 months. What a messy mess. https://twitter.com/...

• @nicnguyen Nicole Nguyen on x

  WhatsApp is delaying an update to its privacy policy after backlash from some users over how it would share data with Facebook until May. https://www.wsj.com/...

• @wsjbusiness @wsjbusiness on x

  WhatsApp is delaying an update to its privacy policy after backlash from some users over how it would share data with Facebook, which owns the popular messaging service. https://www.wsj.com/...

• @profcarroll @profcarroll on x

  (Worth noting that Brian Acton, WhatsApp co-founder, put $50M into the non-profit that makes Signal.) https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @dinodaizovi Dino A. Dai Zovi on x

  “Users don't care about privacy” Oh? https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @iyad_elbaghdadi @iyad_elbaghdadi on x

  Whatsapp has now given its users more time to delete whatsapp and move over to Signal https://twitter.com/...

• @hakkiocal @hakkiocal on x

  This is not what we asked for. Just apply the EU conditions to your users in Turkey and to the rest of the world. Delaying is not correcting the wrong you are going to do. https://twitter.com/...

• @wheatpond Eric on x

  too late 😈 https://twitter.com/...

• @kylebaker Kyle Baker on x

  Aka let's all freak out 3 months from now https://twitter.com/...

• @zackwhittaker Zack Whittaker on x

  This should be construed as nothing short of a catastrophic communications failure by Facebook. It has nobody to blame but itself. https://techcrunch.com/...

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  here is head of WhatsApp explaining what is and isn't changing, from last week when the controversy was bubbling up https://twitter.com/...

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  A surprising reversal, at least to me. I guess now we'll find out how much of the Signal/Telegram growth was related to WhatsApp changes, and how much of it was something else. https://twitter.com/...

• @joannastern Joanna Stern on x

  WhatsApp is delaying that update to its privacy policy after the backlash. The company says there's been “a lot of misinformation” about it. Well now. https://www.wsj.com/...

• @kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x

  NEW: WhatsApp is delaying its privacy update that confused everyone about what data it collects and what data is shared with FB. Originally you had to accept the new policy by Feb 8, now that's been delayed to May 15 https://blog.whatsapp.com/...

• @nicoleperlroth Nicole Perlroth on x

  Apparently Facebook also noticed everyone it knows moving to Signal. https://twitter.com/...

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  background: people are extremely mad at WhatsApp privacy update and are flooding to other apps like Signal and Telegram as a result now, WhatsApp doing damage control to stem the tide of misinformation *about whatsapp* flooding through its service https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @shiraovide Shira Ovide on x

  I will again say: 1) WhatsApp wasn't clear what changed in its privacy practice and what didn't. 2) This wouldn't have happened if people didn't distrust Facebook. A hangover of 4 zillion scandals. 3) What if WhatsApp did the App Store “nutrition label” in its own app? https://tw…

• @mshannahmurphy Hannah Murphy on x

  BREAKING: WhatsApp has delayed the roll-out of its new privacy policy for three months, citing “confusion” and “misinformation” about the changes - which have sent worried users flocking to lesser-known apps Signal and Telegram https://www.ft.com/...

• @nickstatt Nick Statt on x

  New: The WhatsApp privacy policy update that's caused so much confusion around data sharing with Facebook is being pushed back by three months, to May 15th. https://www.theverge.com/...

• @wolfiechristl Wolfie Christl on x

  Regardless of the announced update, what kind of personal information does Whatsapp currently share with FB, according to its website? - account+device info - transaction data - service-related information - information on how you interact with others Basically, all metadata. htt…

• @swodinsky Shoshana Wodinsky on x

  ive spent two years researching the minutiae of whatsapp's privacy policies / combing through every page its business-facing code / getting into shouting matches w random engineers over this shit this is the most comprehensive explanation you'll read 💃 https://gizmodo.com/...

• @wolfiechristl Wolfie Christl on x

  This is what they say. I don't trust in what they say, because I don't see GDPR enforcement. Generally, I don't question their e2e encryption for content, even though @swodinsky has written about Whatsapp's “idea of baking a brand-sized loophole” into it: https://gizmodo.com/...

• @swodinsky Shoshana Wodinsky on x

  fwiw, it's ironic as hell that a facebook property ended up sparking a massive misinformation campaign *about itself,* whatsapp knows what its policies mean. it knows that even if ppl aren't necessarily mad for the *right* reason, they have ample reason to rage quit the app

• @geminiimatt Matteo on x

  Seriously. This is possibly the best article on this #whatsapp situation that could be written! @swodinsky deserves an award or at least an end-to-end encrypted messenger that's worthy. Also to whomever the editor was. https://gizmodo.com/...

• @madmanweb Madhu Menon on x

  A good explanation of how your Whatsapp data with businesses was going to be used. https://gizmodo.com/... TL;DR Don't talk to businesses using WA because adtech companies can use anything in that chat to target you with ads everywhere. Chats with friends still encrypted and OK.

• @johnwilander John Wilander on x

  “When an encrypted chat platform that's been widely praised by people in the privacy and security space very rudely announces it'll be sharing your data—any data—with a company like Facebook, you can understand why that would raise some hackles.” https://gizmodo.com/...

• @wolfiechristl Wolfie Christl on x

  So, Facebook lied to users and regulators. According to the lawsuit, FB “took great pains to avoid negative press coverage” in 2016. The Whatsapp founder was told to get not “too much into the weeds on the types of data we're sharing” and instead prepare some “'safe' examples”. h…

• @catthekin Claire Atkin on x

  Bless @swodinsky for this whole incredible article but especially for this summary. Antitrust now. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @mytechmusings @mytechmusings on x

  @Techmeme @swodinsky Just pushing the deadline by a few months is not going to persuade anybody to stop moving out. @Facebook need to do something different. I think inserting relevant ads (to make money) in the conversations would be okay for many users than totally changing pri…

• @corbettbarr Corbett Barr on x

  Here's another more detailed explanation (from @swodinsky) of how Facebook is weakening WhatsApp encryption in order to profit from more data sharing with businesses: https://gizmodo.com/...

• @andrewcouts Andrew Couts on x

  This Was WhatsApp's Plan All Along: @swodinsky explains the nitty-gritty details about what the forthcoming WhatsApp privacy policy changes actually mean https://gizmodo.com/... Tip @Techmeme

• @lorenzofb Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai on x

  https://gizmodo.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @alexeheath Alex Heath on x

  Hard to overstate how big of a blunder this was from WhatsApp, and the long term damage it could still do to the app's privacy reputation. Seems like Facebook's efforts to monetize it are going to be difficult to pull off without pissing people off.