We are all entitled to digital privacy

By agreeing to share contacts, Facebook and WhatsApp have intruded into our personal lives

he number of people involved now on Facebook is truly staggering, with approximately a quarter of the world’s population having an account on the social media site that has become omnipresent and ubiquitous over the past decade. We live in a world of ‘likes’ and ‘status updates’, of private lives lived through shared images, groups and social interaction in a digital format. We are ‘friends’ now with those we hardly know, keep in touch with bare acquaintances and mark birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions with the tick of a button. And when disaster such as earthquakes, terrorist attacks or floods strike near us, we can let family and everyone else in our digital social circle know that we are indeed safe, well, and able to continue posting on Facebook.

WhatsApp too has some 1.1 billion users, all enjoying the service that allows for instant chatting, group talk and updates instantly. And with a service that has so many users, its value is enormous. That’s why, for instance, the messaging application was purchased by Facebook two years ago, adding to the unprecedented stable of social and digital platforms garnered by the board under founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg.

If each of the 1.1 billion WhatsApp users believed assurances given at the time of purchase that personal data would be kept separate from the Facebook behemoth, events of this past week have left them sadly mistaken. Facebook and WhatsApp are to share data now, allowing messages from companies, banks and restaurants to be sent to WhatsApp accounts, with the contact list of your phone now to be shared with Facebook. In other words, try as you might to keep both separate to hold on to some form of privacy, all of the data will now be pooled.

This development is a worrisome departure, removing a vestige of privacy between the personal phonebook and Facebook friends, merging the two for the commercial advantage of both Facebook and WhatsApp.

Already, privacy advocates in the United States and Europe are taking the issue up with regulators — and right so. It’s enough to make the sceptical and introverted among us to close one or both accounts as a reminder that our digital profile remains under our personal control, not to be shared or sold as algorithms please. Right now, it is possible to opt out of the shared information, but the time-frame closes after mid-September. Privacy is a personal right, regardless of what WhatsApp and Facebook believe.