According to a report in the New York Times, Facebook is integrating all of its messaging platforms - Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram - into one infrastructure. While the 3 apps would remain separate, the back end connections between these apps would form and develop into one common (read BIG) messaging platform. This move shall bring together 3 of the world's largest messaging platforms (consisting of 2.6 billion people), allowing people to interact across the platforms for the first time.
The good thing, on the face of it, is that end-to-end encryption, which already exists on WhatsApp would be extended to all 3 services, which would convert into increased security and privacy for direct messages (DMs) in Instagram and Messenger.
But...... there are a few caveats! Of course :)
Before we get to the caveats, let us understand why is Facebook doing this?
Earlier, Mr. Zuckerberg had promised Instagram & WhatsApp relative autonomy. But he is going back on it now. See, the popularity of Facebook has weaned over a period of time. A lot of people do not actively use the network. The interest, especially amongst the youth is on the decline. Instagram, though is a cherished network and WhatsApp continues to grow phenomenally across the globe. By bringing all these services together, Facebook may be able to farther its reach, analyse and advertise to its user base at once, for Facebook is heavily dependent on advertising revenue.
The 2nd advantage that Mr. Zuckerberg would be hoping is that Facebook's utility would go up and people would be invested within the ecosystem which would mean less reliance on rival apps fro Apple & Google. If users interact within the company's apps, they would be able to increase their advertising business and maybe, even add a revenue generating service.
Now let s talk about the concern!
This move raises concerns of privacy. Question marks remain about how would user data be shared within these services. Unlike Facebook, users are not required to share their real identities/names on WhatsApp (only phone number) & Instagram (May use pseudo names). So, if a WhatsApp user does not have a Facebook account, will their real identity be automatically generated in Facebook's back end?
While this might look like a trivial issue to most, do note that Facebook had horrible 2018 when it garnered the reputation of being a company that misused the data it had at hand.
The company also landed in trouble for having provided misleading information to European regulators as they reviewed Facebook’s more than $17 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014. Facebook had initially told European Union officials that it wasn’t possible to meld WhatsApp data with Facebook’s own digital information/data. It turned out that wasn’t true and Facebook has since started to combine user information. Facebook later said it made unintentional errors in a filing to the European Union related to the WhatsApp purchase.
While this debate will rage on for a while to come, the unifying of the apps in itself is inevitable. This will also make the "Quit Facebook" movement difficult to take up.
All that we, as users can do is to be very careful about what kind of data/messages we send online. With so much data mining & scrutiny by Facebook, we need to be mindful about sharing as little data as possible!
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| Source - Google Images |
The good thing, on the face of it, is that end-to-end encryption, which already exists on WhatsApp would be extended to all 3 services, which would convert into increased security and privacy for direct messages (DMs) in Instagram and Messenger.
But...... there are a few caveats! Of course :)
Before we get to the caveats, let us understand why is Facebook doing this?
Earlier, Mr. Zuckerberg had promised Instagram & WhatsApp relative autonomy. But he is going back on it now. See, the popularity of Facebook has weaned over a period of time. A lot of people do not actively use the network. The interest, especially amongst the youth is on the decline. Instagram, though is a cherished network and WhatsApp continues to grow phenomenally across the globe. By bringing all these services together, Facebook may be able to farther its reach, analyse and advertise to its user base at once, for Facebook is heavily dependent on advertising revenue.
The 2nd advantage that Mr. Zuckerberg would be hoping is that Facebook's utility would go up and people would be invested within the ecosystem which would mean less reliance on rival apps fro Apple & Google. If users interact within the company's apps, they would be able to increase their advertising business and maybe, even add a revenue generating service.
Now let s talk about the concern!
This move raises concerns of privacy. Question marks remain about how would user data be shared within these services. Unlike Facebook, users are not required to share their real identities/names on WhatsApp (only phone number) & Instagram (May use pseudo names). So, if a WhatsApp user does not have a Facebook account, will their real identity be automatically generated in Facebook's back end?
While this might look like a trivial issue to most, do note that Facebook had horrible 2018 when it garnered the reputation of being a company that misused the data it had at hand.
The company also landed in trouble for having provided misleading information to European regulators as they reviewed Facebook’s more than $17 billion purchase of WhatsApp in 2014. Facebook had initially told European Union officials that it wasn’t possible to meld WhatsApp data with Facebook’s own digital information/data. It turned out that wasn’t true and Facebook has since started to combine user information. Facebook later said it made unintentional errors in a filing to the European Union related to the WhatsApp purchase.
 |
| Source - Google Images |
While this debate will rage on for a while to come, the unifying of the apps in itself is inevitable. This will also make the "Quit Facebook" movement difficult to take up.
All that we, as users can do is to be very careful about what kind of data/messages we send online. With so much data mining & scrutiny by Facebook, we need to be mindful about sharing as little data as possible!
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