Yes, yes, privacy, it is not the sexiest topic and many tech-lovers believe it does exist at all. There is an merging of a number of companies and subsidiaries on the calendar that can have major consequences for just about everyone in the world. At least, if it continues.
As the title suggests, social platform Facebook is preparing for a merger of the two chat apps WhatsApp and Messenger and photo platform Instagram. The apps are not mixed into one app, but will use the same structure, servers and backbone behind the scenes.
“I do not care much about what Facebook does with their companies,” some will say. But believe that this can have major consequences for users. You do not have to believe me, believe the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC)!
“Facebook’s previous proposals to share data between their companies have raised major concerns about data protection of the user. The Irish DPC wants to know for sure that such concerns will be taken care of by Facebook before the company goes ahead with the proposal. “
And it is not the first time that Mark Zuckerberg’s data auction platform has been tapped. Previously, the company wanted to transfer data from WhatsApp to Facebook and combine it in this way. That did not happen after the Information Commissioner’s Office in the United Kingdom labeled it as illegal.
It seems that the platform has again found loopholes in the wording of the law or statements of watchdogs. Anyway, when the various companies are merged, Facebook will have even more personal information about you in no time, because you share all sorts of different things through the different media. In short, another shady proposal from Facebook to shamelessly abuse data from you.
And if they do the apps together, at least throw it under one app! Do not pretend that they are still standalone applications and save us the trouble of constantly having to switch between apps.