Since Facebook’s huge purchase of the WhatsApp platform in 2014 and getting rid of the 99p annual fee, they’ve introduced a voice call facility, a desktop application and end-to-end encryption since. However, they never capitalised on any new revenue streams. Well, as you saw yesterday, Facebook-owned WhatsApp announced upcoming changes to their privacy policy which incorporate businesses being able to send messages to you through WhatsApp instead of the traditional SMS service. One positive message that came from the changes is that WhatsApp said they will not be putting advert banners into message threads.
We want to explore ways for you to communicate with businesses that matter to you, while still giving you an experience without third-party banner ads and spam.
Still, the sharing of your information from WhatsApp to Facebook has enraged a number of people, including Gears, so if you want to opt-out, here’s the method for doing it.
Actually, there’s two ways. Method one applies if you’re yet to accept the new terms and conditions. Instead of just doing the old “Yeah, yeah, accept, whatever… just open the app”, scroll all the way down to the bottom and click on the part that says..
Read more about the key updates to our terms and privacy policy.
In here you’ll need to then remove the tick from the checkbox…
What? you’ve already blindly clicked “Yeah, yeah, accept, whatever… just open the app” ?! Don’t worry, you’ll have 30 days to opt out. In WhatsApp, head to “Settings -> Account -> Share my account info”. At the bottom of this screen is another checkbox, so remove the tick from there and you’re done..
