WhatsApp may not be charging its users any kind of subscription fee anymore, but an upcoming update will allow it to integrate with their Facebook account. While the app’s parent company has been insisting that it was going to keep its distance from the tool ever since the application was acquired, this new development suggests otherwise.
The change was uncovered by freelance Android developer Javier Santos, who posted screenshots of the new feature on his Google Plus page. Based on the images he put up online, WhatsApp will introduce Facebook support as an option under Account settings.
The choice asks consumers if they want to share their WhatsApp account details with Facebook in order to make their experiences on the social networking website better. There’s no elaboration on what exactly this entails or what information will be given out. The website is probably trying to amass more data in order to improve its ad targeting.
Facebook may also be using this as a way to find out who the user is frequently in touch with. It could utilize this to flood their timelines with related posts, making sure they remain addicted to the site. The shift towards mining the app for information makes sense for the social media behemoth now that the tool doesn’t charge or carry any third-party ads.
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While the integration with Facebook raises questions about privacy, WhatsApp is simultaneously introducing support for end-to-end encryption. Version 2.12.413 of the application will supposedly safeguard both calls and messages from prying eyes. People can authenticate this for themselves by activating a show security indicators option.
They then have to select verify security number under contact info, group info and during WhatsApp calls. The photo which has been leaked notes that all communications are automatically encrypted even if the setting is not switched on.