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Apps data sharing

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  • 14-10-2018 12:59pm
    #1
    mel.b
    Registered Users Posts: 3,130 ✭✭✭


    I know whats app is owned by facebook. I added two new people on whats app today and now they are appearing on my facebook feed as suggestions of people i may know. To me its just a little creepy that some algorithm somewhere is obviously recognising their phone numbers in whats app and matching that to facebook data. Are there any settings i can change to reduce tracking like this?


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    #2
    Franz Von Peppercorn
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,070 ✭✭✭Franz Von Peppercorn


    There’s two ways they could be doing this.

    1) WhatsApp is uploading the contacts to the cloud (if so you agreed to this).
    2) if you agreed to allow Facebook access to the contacts and you added the device contacts when you added the WhatsApp friends.

    It’s hard to know without knowing your device but on my iPhone WhatsApp is strongly integrated with contacts (that’s how it started) and I can’t see a way to turn that off in the app. You can in the privacy settings but then WhatsApp stops working. There no obvious option to not sync contacts.


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    #3
    OldMrBrennan83
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26,658 ✭✭✭✭OldMrBrennan83


    Is it a massive deal if they are showing on Facebook anyway?


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    #4
    mel.b
    Registered Users Posts: 3,130 ✭✭✭mel.b


    Patww79 wrote: »
    Is it a massive deal if they are showing on Facebook anyway?

    It’s not a big deal, its just that it felt a bit like someone was peering into my phone. I know that’s not actually what happens but its what it felt like.

    I’m really mot a tin foil hat wearing or mega privacy person but this just felt like spying.


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    #5
    OldMrBrennan83
    Closed Accounts Posts: 26,658 ✭✭✭✭OldMrBrennan83


    mel.b wrote: »
    It’s not a big deal, its just that it felt a bit like someone was peering into my phone. I know that’s not actually what happens but its what it felt like.

    I’m really mot a tin foil hat wearing or mega privacy person but this just felt like spying.

    There's definitely a lot of dodgy things out there with data sharing etc, but I'd be more worried if they weren't the same company. This data would be one of the main reasons Facebook originally bought Whatsapp.


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