TL;DR Breakdown
- Facebook digital currency project is likely to take a hit.
- New WhatsApp policy is forcing users to accept terms until February 8.
- New WhatsApp policy puts Asian and Pacific users at privacy risks.
- Users are tired of Facebook policies over privacy concerns owing to data breaches.
The new WhatsApp policy being rolled out in Asia, the Pacific, and other regions leaving out the European countries can cause troubles not only for the messenger app but also the Facebook digital currency project. The new rules would now require users to share details with Facebook as a third-party vendor, while Facebook, is now integrating Instagram direct messages (DMs), WhatsApp messages, and Facebook messenger into a seamless network.
What’s new from WhatsApp?
Along with the various different data variables that include battery level, contacts, location, mobile phone number, mobile phone hardware, businesses you interact with, and even your IP and ISP, WhatsApp also collects information on payment transactions made. While the new privacy policy dictates.
We are part of the Facebook Companies. As part of the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, the Facebook Companies as described in WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy, including to provide integrations which enable you to connect your WhatsApp experience with other Facebook Company Products; to ensure security, safety, and integrity across the Facebook Company Products; and to improve your ads and products experience across the Facebook Company Products.
WhatsApp Terms and Services for 2021
This means that now information is essentially shared with Facebook and “improve” ad experience. Well, after all the debacles at Facebook, who would want their most private conversations associated and subjected to Facebook privacy policy and terms? Right?
WhatsApp and Facebook digital currency
Facebook announced Libra, “the Facebook digital currency project” in June 2019, and flags were raised almost immediately. The natural course of the legal discourse lead to a new Senate hearing for Mark Zuckerburg while the G-7 and the European Union (EU) largely refused to allow legal authorization for such a project.
Hundreds of meetings and thousands of hours later in December 2020, Facebook digital currency project approval still eludes while the company was finally forced to change the name from Libra to Diem. The tag line, a new name for a new day sounds desperate at best in an attempt for regulatory approvals.
In the initial plans, Facebook did reveal that leveraging the WhatsApp user base for the then Libra stablecoin is highly likely, which raised additional privacy concerns and flags for the cryptocurrency. Now the iron first attempt to make users accept Facebook privacy controls is turning disastrous with giants rooting for other services such as Telegram and Signal.
The move is likely to kill the already thinning Facebook user base that was not very keen to test the Libra let alone the face-lifted Diem version. While thousands if not millions of users from Asia, the Pacific, and others have reportedly joined a second service regardless of their WhatsApp usage. While the situation in the United States was not very good as it is.
It appears that the Facebook digital currency plan is taking one nose dive after another and continues to take more hits despite all efforts. Well, Zuckerberg, please wake up.
