WhatsApp's new privacy policy didn't go unnoticed last week and certainly not in Microsoft's eyes. The company took the opportunity to promote its own service.
For several days now, WhatsApp users have been invited to accept a new condition for using the instant messaging service: the company explains that from February 8, data will be shared with Facebook, otherwise the service will be inaccessible.
Lire aussi : Amazon, Apple and Google have banned the social network application Parler
Skype wants to ride the anti-WhatsApp wave
For many users, enough
is too much, especially since the case comes days after Facebook had to
reveal the extent of user data collected on its iOS app in order to
comply with Apple's new policy. The community giant had also publicly
criticized this obligation of transparency.
While the Signal
application has already benefited from very wide visibility following
this case, the Skype team also intends to take advantage of the
situation. In a message posted on Twitter this weekend, Microsoft
assures us that “Skype respects your privacy. We are committed to
keeping your data private and not reselling it to third parties ”.
Microsoft took the opportunity to share its confidentiality policy; we
learn that the company collects a certain amount of personal information
but the nature of the latter is not very clear. Especially since for
the moment, Microsoft has not yet updated its file on iOS or macOS; it
will have to do this when the next update is published.
According to the explanations provided by the editor of Redmond, the data collected is used for:
provide products, including updating, securing, troubleshooting, as well as providing support;
improve and develop its products;
personalize its products and offer recommendations to users;
send advertising and marketing communications, send promotional
communications, targeted advertisements and presentations of offers
likely to be of interest to its users.
Lire aussi :Elon Musk gives Signal a boost over WhatsApp's new policy
Facebook: precedents that worry
Compared to Signal, Threema,
Olvid or Wire, Skype is therefore clearly not positioned in the private
messaging sector. Microsoft is actually communicating here about the
security of personal data.
Remember that Facebook is a bad
student in this area. As part of the Cambridge Analytica affair, the
private data of 87 million Facebook users had been scrutinized, in 2014,
in particular to influence voting intentions. And last April, hackers
sold the personal data of 267 million users of the social network.
According
to a Facebook spokesperson, however, the company complies with data
security rules imposed by “European Data Protection”. In this context,
Facebook would not access the data of WhatsApp users within the European
Union, whether to improve its products or its advertising.
However,
this does not prevent WhatsApp from returning this warning and imposing
this condition before the deadline of February 8 for the use of its
service.
Post a Comment