Meta is finally opening a crack to advertising on its WhatsApp messaging system.
These will appear on the updates tab and won’t be seen on chats.
“Your personal messages, calls, and statuses remain end-to-end encrypted,” said Nikila Srinivasan, VP of business messaging, Meta.
“What this means is that no one, not even us, can see or hear them. And they cannot be used for ads.
“We've been talking about our plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years and we believe the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work."
WhatsApp, founded in 2009 wigh a vow to keep it ad free, was bought by Facebook in 2014.
“Like everything else on WhatsApp, we’ve built these features in the most privacy-oriented way possible,” Meta said in a blog update.
“Your personal messages, calls and statuses remain end-to-end encrypted, meaning no one can see or hear them. That includes Meta.
“To show ads in Status or Channels you might care about, we’ll use limited info like your country or city, language, the Channels you’re following and how you interact with the ads you see.
“We will never sell or share your phone number to advertisers. Your personal messages, calls and groups you are in will not be used to determine the ads you may see.
“We’ll be rolling this out slowly over the next several months.”
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