OMD FWD w/c Aug 30th
Businesses will soon be able to message WhatsApp users, as the company plans to give its parent company, Facebook, personal information including users’ phone numbers. WhatsApp’s billion-plus users will be notified of changes to the privacy policy and will be able to opt out within 30 days. Even though WhatsApp has said it won’t use banner ads or allow spam on the platform the ad targeting will be on Facebook’s own platform. The feature has been under testing since WhatsApp dropped its yearly fee service at the start of the year. WhatsApp and Facebook accounts will continue to remain separate and the service will not be merging with one another. However, WhatsApp updated its privacy policy stating “messages you may receive containing marketing could include an offer for something that might interest you”. The company still insists that it does not sell ads when activating the service, linking to a blog post from 18 June 2012 titled “why we don’t sell ads”. Whilst Instagram enjoys revenue from advertising neither WhatsApp nor Facebook Messenger do. However, they have yet to fully leverage its billion-plus user base and the potential is there. As always, share anything you find interesting with #OMDFWD
HEADLINES
- WhatsApp will begin sharing private information with Facebook and is preparing to allow businesses to message users
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