No point in ditching WhatsApp if you still use Insta and Facebook, says expert

Alistair Fairweather of Plain Speak Technology says Facebook gets far more data from its own app and Instagram than WhatsApp.

Have you decided to ditch WhatsApp's for chat apps like Telegram and Signal, because of the new terms of service?

If you decided to move to other chat apps, then you need to know how this will impact your user experience and some of the agreements you need to accept.

To explain in more detail on Tech made easy today, Amy McIver chats to Alistair Fairweather the co-owner and founder of Plain Speak Technology Consultants

It is important to be aware that Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2017 and for a long time no data was shared between these platforms and services, he notes.

The new contract you need to agree to means Facebook will collect more data from WhatsApp users after 8 February - essentially you 'pay' for a 'free' service with your data.

He finds it puzzling that people are reacting now when in fact everyone who uses Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp already is compromising their data.

I think it just caught the public imagination and then people began repeating it to each other without really fully understanding the ramifications.

Alistair Fairweather, Founder and co-owner - Plain Speak Technology Consultants

If you are on Facebook and you have the Facebook app on your phone, deleting WhatsApp will do nothing. It will not increase or reduce the amount of data Facebook gets from you. Facebook gets far more data from its own app and Instagram than it does from WhatsApp.

Alistair Fairweather, Founder and co-owner - Plain Speak Technology Consultants

If you are not going to delete Facebook and Instagram apps off your phone then getting rid of WhatsApp is not really going to change anything about how much Facebook knows about you.

Alistair Fairweather, Founder and co-owner - Plain Speak Technology Consultants

Moving to another chat app also has implications, he says.

Many such as those less tech-savvy may not know or be able to do this and it will cause much fragmentation for users, he says.

It is a great teaching moment for us to think more abstractly about the implications.

Alistair Fairweather, Founder and co-owner - Plain Speak Technology Consultants

He acknowledges that these platforms have far too much information about all of us.

He says while WhatsApp had always sworn not to share information, once Facebook bought it there was likely a sunset clause that is now coming to an end, enabling the Zuckerberg empire to overturn that.

But there is still end-to-end encryption so they cannot look into your messages though they can see who you are talking to...which is very useful information.

Alistair Fairweather, Founder and co-owner - Plain Speak Technology Consultants

Take a listen to what he advises below:

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