A digital expert from Carlton has today revealed to Gedling Eye readers a way to prevent instant messaging app WhatsApp from sharing phone numbers with parent company Facebook.
Geoff Wing, who advises big firms in London about digital innovation, said: “They [WhatsApp] announced this week they would start sharing data with Facebook as part of an update to its privacy policy
“They say it will better connect the two networks. I’m not a fan of this idea and I don’t appreciate Facebook sending you friend requests for people you speak to on WhatsApp. Some of my contacts on WhatsApp are business colleagues that I don’t wish to engage with on a social network.”
Geoff said there is a way to prevent this from happening.
“When the app offers you the new terms and conditions, rather than select ‘agree’, choose ‘read more’. In here you should be able to untick an option that asks if you would like to share data with Facebook.”
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But some people are concerned that they may have already blindly accepted WhatsApp’s new terms and conditions and there is no way back.
“That’s not the case,” says Geoff.
“You have 30 days to change your mind from when you agreed to the new terms.
“You need to go to the app’s settings menu and then go to the “account” tab. In there you should be able to untick a box that reads “Share my account info”. This will stop WhatsApp from sharing anything with Facebook.”
When the update was announced WhatsApp made a promise to users not to “post or share your WhatsApp number with others, including on Facebook, and we still won’t sell, share, or give your phone number to advertisers.”
