Meta has announced that it will begin displaying ads on WhatsApp. The ads you see on the app will be based on your data and online behavior. This will further increase the power and data monopoly of the Big Tech company, at the expense of user privacy. If there weren’t enough reasons already to use Signal instead of WhatsApp, this should surely be the final straw.

Ads on WhatsApp

Meta is the parent company of Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. On Instagram and Facebook, users have long been exposed to personalized ads. Meta tracks users’ online behavior not only within its own apps but also on a significant portion of other websites, via cookies. Because Meta knows so much about you, it can show highly targeted ads that you’re likely to interact with.

On WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta, there have been no ads until now. Meta has also consistently claimed that WhatsApp user data was not used to personalize ads on other apps. That has now changed. WhatsApp will start showing ads, for example, between “Updates” - the photos and messages that are visible for 24 hours.

These ads are not based on your WhatsApp conversations, which are protected by end-to-end encryption (meaning that only the sender and recipient can see them). However, the ads will still be personalized: according to Meta, ads on WhatsApp will be based on “limited information.” This includes your country, city, and language, as well as the channels you follow and your interactions with the ads you see. That’s a lot of information and can hardly be called “limited,” as Meta claims. Furthermore, ads can also be based on data from your other Meta accounts (on Instagram and Facebook). Meta says it will only do this if users have added WhatsApp to their “Account Center.”

The consequences for WhatsApp users

This new development has consequences for WhatsApp users. The most noticeable difference from the current situation is that you will see ads in various places within the app, which could change or disrupt your user experience. According to Meta, it will not show ads within your actual conversations. But in 2016, the tech giant also said it would never show ads on WhatsApp at all, and look where we are now. As we’ve already proven, Meta is not to be trusted: in 2019, a Facebook lobbyist lied to members of the Dutch parliament (“de Tweede Kamer”). A promise from Meta doesn’t carry much weight.

The ads you see will be based on a lot of data. This means WhatsApp has a good understanding of which ad to show to whom and when, to maximize the likelihood of you clicking. This tracking-based ad system is highly problematic because it essentially manipulates users into clicking on ads. You cannot opt out of having your data used for these ads, so you have no say in the matter. All this just adds to Meta’s power and wealth.

What can you do

To put it mildly, this development is not great for WhatsApp users. We strongly recommend switching to Signal instead of WhatsApp as much as possible. Here’s a quick rundown why to use Signal: Signal protects your privacy; it’s a non-profit foundation that does not profit from its users and is open source. There are no ads on Signal, and there’s absolutely no data monopoly.

Signal and WhatsApp both have massive infrastructures that are expensive to maintain – and those costs have to be covered somehow. WhatsApp is turning to ads to pay the bills. Signal doesn’t do this, but it still needs funding to continue operating. If you use Signal, consider making a donation to the Signal Foundation. Your support helps prevent the app from shutting down or having to resort to shady ways of making money off its users.