Should I uninstall WhatsApp?
While pondering over this question, we realised that this is a far bigger debate than one app that shares data with its parent company. It brings up fundamental questions - What is privacy? Why should I worry about it?
We decided to tackle those first.
What does privacy mean to us?
“All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.”
―Gabriel García Márquez
Public information is information you are willing to share with everyone. For example, your LinkedIn profile.
Private information is something you share with some people, some of the time. For example, your mobile number, your address, your political affiliations, etc.
Secret information is, in an individual’s context, information that is not shared with anyone. For example, passwords.
Secret information, if leaked, can cause some amount of harm to you. This could contain information about illegal activities done by you! The state law enforcement agencies have the right to investigate and identify these nefarious secrets, if they are illegal or against national or public interests.
The whole ‘privacy’ debate is about information that falls in the ‘private’ category. This is information that you want to share with some others, but not everyone. For example, you might be ok with the bank knowing your account balance, but not your lawyer.
Private data is of two types: data that you intentionally share with others and data that is collected about you. Privacy policies, data protection laws, etc. all refer to this these categories of private data and address what the receiver can and cannot do with them.
Privacy has no easy definition. It means different things to different people at different times.
Misconceptions of privacy
Now that we have defined privacy to a reasonable extent, it is easier to understand the different misconceptions about it.
"I have nothing to hide”
The first misconception that we regularly see is - ‘I have nothing to hide, so I should not worry’.
This misconception arises assuming that ‘private’ data and ‘secret’ data are the same. If you have something to hide, which is either illegal or against national / public interest, then the state is well within its right to investigate and uncover this ‘secret’ data.
Privacy is required for data about you that is continuously collected and used for various purposes.
A key factor of privacy is the ability to compartmentalise data about yourself - determining what can be shared with whom and when. For example, if you are looking for a job, you would not want your current employer to see that on a job portal.
“My info is already out there”
Another misconception is - ‘I have already shared this data. Now it is public information, so there is no point hankering after privacy.’ Privacy also means that data shared with one person or corporation, need not be shared with others without your consent.
You should have the ability to control what happens to your information once you share it.
“I’m boring!”
A third misconception is - “So I share some data to get a useful service. No problem.” “I am not that interesting.” “No harm will come of it.” “No one cares about my information.”
Organisations and governments can use your data to create a profile of you. This profile can then be used to offer or deny certain rights, privileges or services. This constant profiling can also be used to discriminate against you and in some cases, even incriminate you!
What information does WhatsApp have about you?
From the privacy policy of WhatsApp that is available here, this is the information that WhatsApp collects about you:
Information provided by you:
Your mobile phone number
Your address book (whether or not contacts are on WhatsApp or not)
Profile Name
Profile Picture
Status Message
Groups associated with you
Broadcast List
Customer support information (when you reach out to WhatsApp)
Automatically collected information:
How you use WhatsApp
How you interact with others using WhatsApp
Log files
diagnostic, crash, website and performance logs
Payment Receipts from app stores and third parties processing the payment
Phone hardware model
Operating system information
Browser information
IP address
Mobile network information including phone number, and device identifiers
Location information (when you share your location, view nearby locations or have others share it with you)
Cookies (WhatsApp for web)
Status information (status message, online, last seen, etc.)
Third Party information:
Information others provided about you (phone numbers, etc.)
Third party providers - verbatim (For example, we work with companies to distribute our apps, provide our infrastructure, delivery, and other systems, supply map and places information, process payments, help us understand how people use our Services, and market our Services.)
Usage of third party services (WhatsApp share button on websites, etc.)
This data is shared with the ‘Facebook family of companies’.
WhatsApp for business has a few additional data points that it collects. Here is what WhatsApp has to say about a business account:
Businesses you interact with using WhatsApp provide Facebook information about their interactions with you.
A business on WhatsApp may also use another company to assist it in storing, reading, and responding to your messages on behalf of and in support of that business.
WhatsApp considers chats with businesses that use the WhatsApp Business app or manage and store customer messages themselves to be end-to-end encrypted. Once the message is received, it will be subject to the business’s own privacy practices. The business may designate a number of employees, or even other vendors, to process and respond to the message.
Some businesses will be able to choose WhatsApp’s parent company, Facebook, to securely store messages and respond to you. This means that Facebook will be able to read your messages!
This data can be analysed to create your profile. This profile can be used for:
targeting you for advertisements
shared with law enforcement or other government agencies
sharing with third party business partners for commercial use
It can get worse. This information can be used for:
denying you certain services (for example, a bank might decide your credit limit based on your payment history on WhatsApp)
curtailing your rights and freedoms (for example, law enforcement has the ability to wrongfully implicate you based on analysis of your WhatsApp activity, location, number of messages, calls, etc. with others)
Should we stop using WhatsApp?
Many messaging services collect similar data. What makes WhatsApp different is its ability to correlate your WhatsApp data with your Facebook and Instagram data, creating a very powerful profile that has tremendous potential to be misused.
If you are worried about privacy and care about the adverse implications of this data analysis, you are better off without WhatsApp. If you choose to continue using WhatsApp, treat it like a public broadcast medium. Do not share information that you would not post to everybody on your Facebook page.