Some chat apps, such as WhatsApp, Signal and Line, encrypt your messages end-to-end by default, meaning only you and who you’re chatting to can see and hear what is being said. However, if you’re still not sure, there are plenty of high-scoring alternatives, such as Signal, if you can get your friends and contacts to also switch. And you don’t actually need a Facebook account to use WhatsApp, either.

If you never chat to a non-Europe based business through WhatsApp, you don’t necessarily need to worry. So, it can record that you’re talking to a US-based clothing company on WhatsApp, for example, and then serve you with ads for similar brands on Facebook.

While it can’t read the messages, it can collect data on which businesses you talk to and how often you contact them, and then use this to target you with advertising through its various platforms.ĭue to UK data protection laws, Facebook can’t do this while you chat to anyone within the UK or European Union, but it can do so anywhere else. You’ve probably heard about a recent controversy over a change to WhatsApps terms and conditions.įacebook, which bought WhatsApp for $16bn in 2014, now has the ability to track some of the businesses that you chat to on WhatsApp.

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