User privacy, at zero cost?
Nowadays, the digital world is immersed in a constant change encouraged by the massive growth of social networks, which allow users to interact both socially and at work. The different apps are constantly evolving, so, in parallel, they must adapt their privacy policies. As a result, many users question the proper use of their data when they encounter fairly strict regulations that put the maintenance of their account at stake, leading them to consider staying on these networks and migrating to others.
Earlier this year, WhatsApp announced changes to its privacy policy as of February 8. As soon as users read the new terms and conditions, which required them to sign a contract to keep their account on the app, chaos ensued.
But what did this contract specify to generate this reaction? Share WhatsApp data with Facebook to continue enjoying the free messaging service. In other words: integrate WhatsApp into Facebook, accepting advertising and promotion of the latter social network.
The consequences were not long in coming: mass migrations to other messaging platforms like Telegram and Signal. Telegram, which already has 500 million users, gained 25 million new consumers in 72 hours.
Marc Rivero, director of the Master in Cybersecurity at La Salle Campus Barcelona, gave us a more detailed explanation about the attitude of users to these issues: "We have always been very incautious about the use of social networks or messaging applications with a false sense of security, believing that with the gratuity of such a service we do not give anything in exchange".
What scares the users? Intrusion and loss of privacy. Accepting the contract opens the door to a large amount of metadata related to information: phone number, images, chat, to name a few. Let's not forget that this app is owned by Facebook.
WhatsApp has been quick to respond to the new million users who have unsubscribed in recent weeks and the flood of comments received. In fact, the update of the new contract has been postponed to May 15 in order to "properly inform consumers about this new policy", the company said.
“Social networks, messaging apps, they all play with our data, whether it’s uploading the contact list to the cloud, or having access to other data like photos, links and so on. In free services, the product is you” added Rivero.
Another of the controversies that have been generated in the field of social networks this 2021 is accompanied by ClubHouse, an audio chat social network, access, for the moment, exclusively through invitation and available to date only for the iOS operating system. This platform creates audio rooms by topic in real-time and allows users to participate.
In terms of privacy, it is forbidden to record the content of the rooms. In case you are a user. For its part, the application itself temporarily records all conversations to investigate possible incidents. Once this check has been done, the recording is deleted. Users are upset because only ClubHouse has the power to decide whether or not audio is kept for the long term and they can't save the conversation they have participated in. In addition, the app may use the content in perpetuity, although they do not indicate the purpose of this use, nor do they refer to the storage of personal data.
ClubHouse was also quick to respond, stating that it was taking responsibility for analyzing all the information that had come to light and trying to improve these issues. However, the app has already been downloaded by more than 4 million people.
Another similar case is Twitter Spaces, Twitter's audio platform where conversations are stored for 30 days, and up to a month to verify that the established regulations are met. Otherwise, the time limit would be increased to 90 days. Twitter Spaces, due to launch next April, states this in its privacy policy, but few users take the time to read these conditions before accessing the application.
An example of security malpractice we also saw in 2019, with another case of vulnerability when an app was released that allowed both images and videos to be manipulated before reaching their recipient.
Perhaps the time has come for us to rethink reading the small print before accepting, almost by inertia, any privacy policy, no matter how obvious it may seem to us. For the most part, users start the house from the roof up, by using an application and completely ignoring the clauses they have agreed to.