Hi Team,
Perhaps to further guide our discussion is this twitter thread by Will
Cathcart the Whatsapp CEO
https://twitter.com/wcathcart/status/1347660768225841152 where he stated
that the new changes that are coming in would not change how Whatsapp
shared Data with Facebook group of companies. The new changes were to
update business communication as currently about 175 million people
interact with a Whatsapp business account everyday. Furthermore, he states
that end to end encryption will still remain and the changes do not apply
when you interact with non-business accounts.
I think what has happened is that Whatsapp while in the process of updating
its terms for business accounts interaction either knowingly or unknowingly
ended up showing us or making it easier for us to finally understand and
know the Data it shares with Facebook group of companies.
In addition, it also showed us the power of having strong data regulations
as this policy will not apply to Europe. Perhaps we can also look at India
as it provides a good case study of how we can go about this issue.
Currently the Supreme Court of India has asked the Centre and WhatsApp to
reply to a fresh plea alleging lower standards of privacy for Indians in
comparison to European users. The court stated, “it is the duty of the
judiciary to protect citizens’ privacy. This would be an interesting case
to follow.
yourstory.com/2021/02/supreme-court-whatsapp-facebook-privacy-policy-indian-government
Lastly, it is high time Africa as seen from the EU example start working as
one when it comes to Data Legislation and Policy matters. We already have a
very good convention that is the African Union Convention on Cybersecurity
and Data Protection. Sadly only 19 countries have ratified it since it was
published in 2014. With the passing of AFCTA I think this convention and
subsequent Data policies may play a bigger role than initially thought as
the saying goes Umoja ni Nguvu.
Other Reads:
1.
faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/answering-your-questions-about-whatsapps-privacy-policy
Whatsapp Expaliner on the privacy policy
2.
www.theverge.com/2021/1/12/22226792/whatsapp-privacy-policy-response-signal-telegram-controversy-clarification
The verge article on the same.
3. restofworld.org/2021/whatsapp-risks-losing-its-loyal-customers/
Rest of the world article on the effects the changes had in India why they
risk losing thier most loyal base the uncles, aunts and grandparents
4.
researchictafrica.net/2021/01/26/the-great-whatsapp-migration-delving-to-the-roots-of-a-much-bigger-problem/
A South African view
Thank you
Kind Regards
Tevin Mwenda Gitonga
On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 9:39 AM Liz Orembo via kictanet <
[email protected]> wrote:
> @barrack, it would be interesting to hear how the principle of Data
> minimization applies when the specified purpose is advertising.
>
> Where’s our data protection guru @walu?
>
> On Thu, Feb 25, 2021, 08:39 Mwara Gichanga via kictanet <
> [email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Thank you all for your contributions, it should very exciting to engage
>> FB on the webinar next week on Tuesday on these important issues and
>> questions you have all raised
>>
>> The discussion continues!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 24 Feb 2021 at 8:57 PM, Wangu Mwangi via kictanet <
>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>> Apologies if I go a bit off track here as i just recently joined this
>>> conversation, but i wanted to share a personal experience i’m still
>>> puzzling over,
>>>
>>> A couple of weeks ago, i suddenly lost all my contact information (names
>>> of contacts i’d been communicating with for years were no longer showing up
>>> when receiving calls, and i couldn’t find contacts when doing a search. But
>>> what its most strange is that at exactly the same time, I started getting
>>> notifications from WhatsApp with guidelines for retrieving lost contacts.
>>>
>>> Does this mean i signed on to something i wasn’t even aware of? And if
>>> so, why would they mess up with saved information for contacts that aren’t
>>> even on my WhatApp lists? This is really frightening to me as a lay
>>> person. Any explanations?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Wangu
>>>
>>> On 24 Feb 2021, at 20:18, Keith Andere via kictanet <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Mwara,
>>>
>>> These are pertinent questions you have raised here, and the discussion
>>> is really interesting.
>>>
>>> On question one, I think Facebook is not your ordinary platform to
>>> compare with other platforms such as bibles and picture filtering apps. I
>>> therefore care much more about the privacy of my data because it’s a piece
>>> to a bigger global puzzle. For me whatsapp is a platform where many aspects
>>> of my life connects, my family, chama, landlord alerts, Mpesa is now
>>> sending statements to whatsapp. I would not want to imagine that I would
>>> want any of this used for business purposes, especially when right to opt
>>> out is denied.
>>>
>>> I think this is also an opportunity to scale homegrown solutions and
>>> platforms because soon enough when we all move to platform B, they would
>>> pull the same strings on us! Seems we must buy our own lunch! I am still
>>> hanging on to the old terms waiting to be axed 🙂
>>>
>>> Ni hayo tu kwa sasa!
>>> Keith
>>>
>>> On Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 7:39 AM Mwara Gichanga via kictanet <
>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear listers,
>>>>
>>>> Thanks to those who managed to contribute to the discussions yesterday.
>>>> We are still collating our questions to Facebook regarding this subject.
>>>> Today let’s talk about what’s at stake with the new terms. To guide our
>>>> discussions, let’s ponder over these questions:
>>>>
>>>> 1. We already have applications that mine our instant generated data
>>>> from our mobile phones(eg bible apps, mobile lending apps, games etc).
>>>> What’s different with Whatsapp getting this data?
>>>>
>>>> 2. Is there anyone who has accepted these terms already? What’s your
>>>> experience so far?
>>>>
>>>> Lets continue the conversation!
>>>>
>>>> Warmly
>>>> Mwara
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> —
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Kind Regards,Keith AndereDirector, Systems DevelopmentIntact Computer
>>> SystemsP. O. Box 2536 – 00621*
>>> *Nairobi*
>>>
>>> *Cell: +254 722 565 212*
>>> *www.intactsystems.co.ke <www.intactsystems.co.ke/>*
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