WhatsApp will start sending data about its users to parent company Facebook. An Android developer discovered the change in the latest update of the popular messaging app.
Android developer Javier Santos discovered that the latest update contains a checkbox where an user can allow WhatsApp to share data with Facebook. According to the description of the checkbox, to "improve the Facebook experience". It's unclear what data will be shared.
Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion but the companies operated separately. This appears to slowly change now.
Earlier this week WhatsApp announced its app would become totally free and that it would no longer offer paid subscriptions. According to the company because many users already had a lifetime free subscriptions and because not everyone has access to a credit card to pay the 89 cents a year subscription.
The company always believed in a subscription model, on a page explaining why the app isn't powered by advertising the company states, "Remember, when advertising is involved you the user are the product."
WhatsApp so far only stated that the company wants to generate an income by connecting companies to consumers using the messaging app. But it's unclear how that will work.
