npr : WhatsApp Will Start Sharing Data, Including Phone Numbers, With Facebook : The Two-Way : NPR

WhatsApp Will Start Sharing Data, Including Phone Numbers, With Facebook : The Two-Way : NPR

WhatsApp Will Start Sharing Data, Including Phone Numbers, With FacebookEnlarge this image Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty Images Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesThe messaging service WhatsApp is changing its privacy policy for the first time since being bought by Facebook in 2014.The app will begin sharing some of its data and phone numbers with the social network.It will also start testing how businesses, too, can talk to its users, for instance by offering flight or shipping or banking notifications.

WhatsApp Will Share User Data — Including Phone Numbers — With Facebook

Instant messaging giant WhatsApp, which boasts more than one million users around the world, is going to begin sharing limited user data — including users' phone numbers — with parent company Facebook.WhatsApp said it would begin sharing with Facebook and its family of companies the phone number users verify when registering with the app as well as data such as the last time individuals used the service in a blog post on Thursday, announcing that it was updating its terms of service and privacy policy for the first time in four years."Even as we coordinate more with Facebook in the months ahead, your encrypted messages stay private and no one else can read them," WhatsApp said in the blog post.

WhatsApp Betrays Privacy Stance, Will Share Data With Facebook

It was going to happen soon enough: WhatsApp will now start sharing user data with the company that owns it, Facebook.Getty ImagesFacebook, of course, will use this data to sell more ads.However, the company won't be looking at your messages.

How to Stop WhatsApp From Giving Facebook Your Phone Number

WhatsApp's privacy settings are changing, and not for the better.As of today, the phone numbers of WhatsApp users will be shared with parent company Facebook.This will allow Facebook to run analytics on user activity and send you friend requests for people you talk to in WhatsApp.