News WhatsApp is officially rolling out Ads

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www.theverge.com

WhatsApp is officially getting ads

The end of an ad-free WhatsApp.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

> WhatsApp is rolling out ads. In an update on Monday, Meta announced that it will now show ads from businesses through its Stories-like status feature.

I guess zuck needs more money. While buying WhatsApp, they said that they'll not introduce ads but it's expected of the great zuck.

WhatsApp is a cancer that we almost got rid of during the failed migration to telegram and signal because of its privacy policy. I just wish it got cut down in size. Sadly, nothing changed and everyone just (accidentally?) clicked ok on that annoying and sneaky popup.

I only keep it because of kid's school as there's no other alternative. Everyone else who asks for WhatsApp gets an "I don't have a WhatsApp" but they sound surprised as if I said "I don't breathe".
Royal Sundaram Insurance didn't even want to do business because they can "only provide quotes on WhatsApp".

Sadly, even the "visionary" CBN has embraced it and the AP govt is full on into "WhatsApp Governance". It's not too long before it becomes as "optional" as aadhaar like our govts say before courts.

Can't wait to see diaper and baby products ads on WhatsApp once we apply for birth certificate for our new born children or kinky ads if you are into some late night science research over WhatsApp :)
 
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Reactions: nomz and Raghav_Go
As cliché as it may sound, when a product is free, we are the product. There are costs associated with running a platform like WhatsApp, and Zuck needs to recover those somehow. In the good old days before Meta's acquisition, WhatsApp planned to charge a dollar per year as a subscription. I wonder how well that would have worked out.
Also, not many people genuinely care about privacy or advertisements. When given a choice between two products, one with a minimal fee and another that's free but with ads, most people will gladly choose the free option.
 
mysticrainman said:
Perhaps I lack the knowledge but.. i thought whatsapp claims to have end to end encryption.. how will they enable targeted ads?
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WhatsApp has always said they will not see your private conversations. They kept repeating only that and nothing else. It's another way to say chats with businesses are fair game according to them. Now you see why they clearly label some accounts as business accounts ? Someone's interaction with businesses is more valuable source of information for ads than knowing what memes or cat pictures they are forwarding.

The question nobody knows the answer to is, when you interact with the govt services using WhatsApp what category it falls into. Is it personal, business or an entirely new category.
 
mysticrainman said:
Perhaps I lack the knowledge but.. i thought whatsapp claims to have end to end encryption.. how will they enable targeted ads?
Click to expand...
From what I understand, the messages themselves are encrypted but the metadata isn't. So they know who you talk with (relative, friend, business), how much you talk, when you talk, what groups you are in etc. They probably already have contact list of every single Whatsapp user.
 
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