WhatsApp Set To Hand Your Secrets To Facebook

WhatsApp has announced its first privacy settings update in four years, revealing it's giving all its users' phone numbers to Facebook.

Now I don't have WhatsApp, but I still get why people who do might read that last sentence and soil their trousers a bit.

You do have a choice to prevent this, but in doing so you'd have to sacrifice WhatsApp altogether. Bit of a dick move, IMO.

A WhatsApp spokesman said: "While WhatsApp will continue to operate as a separate service from Facebook, we plan to begin sharing some information that will allow us to coordinate more in the months ahead and improve experiences across services.

"For example, once people accept the updated terms and privacy policy, we will share some of their account info with Facebook, such as the phone numbers people use to sign up for WhatsApp, along with how often people are using our service."

WhatsApp claim that your number in Facebook's hands will assist in fighting spam and allow companies to communicate with your directly. 'Cause we all love that, don't we?

A WhatsApp spokeswoman said in a blog post: "Whether it's hearing from your bank about a potentially fraudulent transaction, or getting notified by an airline about a delayed flight, many of us get this information elsewhere, including in text messages and phone calls.

"We want to test these features in the next several months, but need to update our terms and privacy policy to do so."