SHARE MY LIFE? NO, THANK YOU

The popular messaging mobile application Whatsapp has recently announced a significant change in their terms & conditions and the privacy policy. This was related to the not-so-long-ago merge of Whatsapp with its parent company Facebook which bought this app for $19 billion in 2014. The official statement on the Whatsapp blog was written by the co-founder Jan Koum where he claims; “by connecting your phone number with Facebook's systems, Facebook can offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads if you have an account with them”. This statement of course received a lot of media coverage and public attention due to the privacy concerns of users.

Facebook eating Whatsapp retrieved from www.abine.com

The now infamous duo Whatsapp and Facebook made it to many news headlines and people started coming up with ways how to opt out from the sharing agreement (scroll down for more info). Two watchdog groups namely the The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) have filed formal complaints against Whatsapp’s action which they describe as unfair and deceptive. Countries such as Germany and India have banned Whatsapp from gathering their user’s information without their consent. Several legal issues have also been raised by the US Federal Trade Commission and the UK Information Commissioner's Office concerning the violation of guidelines regarding such changes.

MEDIUM RARE to WELL DONE

Koum’s statement was meant to inform users about the positive consequences of their actions through a post on their own blog. This online tool was well-chosen because it gives more control to users and its outward design facilitates conversations. Blogs can have an informal format which is more approachable toward online readers. It is an uninhibited platform for companies to express themselves because as Meraz suggests, unlike the traditional media agencies, blogs do not need to follow any bureaucratic rules and norms. That way Koum was able to present their side of the story including the company’s frames and agenda. Unfortunately many people nowadays see through this blogger game.

GOLDEN SHORTCUT

Companies are using increasingly more owned media content to reach their audience. This is a great way for them to leave out traditional media sources and go straight to the gold without paying for editorials or sponsored articles. This was also used by Whatsapp which published only one statement regarding this issue on their blog. This post was picked up by many journalists and used as the main source of information. Organizations can consider this as a cost-saving strategy however others might see it as manipulative. According to Zerfass et al. this is because owned content is often used to bypass the traditional journalists in order to serve the inbound goals of the company rather than the outbound aims of reaching the public with useful information.

Getty image retrieved from www.mirror.co.uk

ORIENTATION DAY

Every company needs to establish a certain relationship with its customers based on values, mutual agreement and also expectations. The co-orientation theory introduced by Walden et al. suggests that both parties in this relationship influence each other. The relationship consist of agreement, accuracy and understanding which describe the vision of both parties on a given topic. The maintenance of these values is important because if disagreements arise, the tension between parties needs to be resolved by taking a corrective action. And that is exactly what users did right after the announcement. The ‘opt-out’ videos have flooded Youtube and people started to be more distrusting towards Whatsapp and its future actions.

REPUTATION AS EXPENSE

Whatsapp was trying to break this news to its users as delicately as possible but these efforts were not fully appreciated. Even though they promise not to share your phone number, photos or your messages they are working on ways to enable various companies to contact people through Whatsapp. That’s not really what users want. This paradox was nicely captured by one of The Guardian’s headlines: “The popular messaging app built its reputation on putting users first. Now its corporate owners are looking for payback and our expense”. This news came as a shocker especially because Whatsapp has always promised their users a private, affordable and ad-free platform however now it seems like these values can easily be sold to the highest bidder.

As already promised, here is a video on how to opt out from sharing account information with Facebook. If you haven’t done it yet then do it NOW because time is running out.

Tick tock.