Whatsapp shares number and info with Facebook: how to prevent it and what does it mean?

All WhatsApp users around the world should have already received a message when opening the application where they are prompted to accept a small modification of the Terms and privacy policy.
To continue using Whatsapp you must necessarily accept the change, but what does this change mean?

Basically, the user’s consent is required a share information (including phone number) of the Whatsapp account with Facebook.
As the message explains, even if Facebook will become aware of our phone number and other info related to the personal Whatsapp account (thus improving user identification), it will not be able to spy on chats and will never publish the number of phone and conversations on Facebook.
This is, in fact, the price to pay to use Whatsapp, which is always free and which, as we know, has been owned by Facebook since 2014 (bought for 19 billion dollars).

UPDATE: Facebook deactivated Whatsapp data sharing in Europe in November 2016 due to legal investigations.

Is there to worry about this interference from Facebook on Whatsapp?
Those who use Facebook and Whatsapp with the awareness that what has been published or written (remember, however, that Whatsapp chats are encrypted while those of Facebook Messenger are not yet) is used in the online distribution of advertising and in the creation of marketing statistics sold to companies, not he should have nothing to fear.
The only change is that now, those who are subscribed to Whatsapp, must share their number with Facebook (and not “on Facebook”), who can use it in combination with other data to integrate other products or to target targeted advertising based on interests.

On the other hand, those who were so naive as to think that Whatsapp was different from Facebook and those who thought that the free use of Whatsapp was based on generosity, then could find themselves displaced by this warning and find themselves in the bitter reality of “if it’s free, the product you are. you”.
After Whatsapp went free for all, with no more annual subscription, it was pretty clear that Facebook would use the most used chat in the world to generate some profit through data sharing and / or advertising.
Fortunately, there is still no form of internal advertising in Whatsapp, but data sharing has now been activated.
If this costs us nothing, Facebook can display better and more targeted ads on its site, thanks to this data collection.

Who disagrees with this new Whatsapp data management policy you have two alternatives, stop using Whatsapp too (in addition to Facebook) and isolate yourself from most of your friends (perhaps by downloading Telegram as a substitute) or modify a new one option that still allows you to block sharing of the phone number with Facebook.

Precisely, to prevent our phone number and other info from being shared on Facebook, you have to open Whatsapp, go to Settings -> Accounts and disable the option Share account info.
As it is written after deactivation and before confirmation, this operation, I do not know why, is irreversible, that is, it will not be possible to go back and reactivate the sharing of information with Facebook.
Facebook could therefore limit the use of some products and some functions, (such as, perhaps, the possibility of receiving free SMS from Facebook).
It must also be considered that this is a partial deactivation and that WhatsApp will still be able to share data for other purposes, such as for improving systems and the app in general.

For all the doubters, WhatsApp has also published a page of FAQ to give more explanations and answer some of the most important questions:
– Will there be any announcements on WhatsApp?
Short answer: No
– What information is shared with Facebook?
The answer here is a bit vague and it’s not clear what those are “some information“that will be shared.
For sure there is that the phone number will be shared.
– Will the information shared by Whatsapp on Facebook be visible to other users on Facebook?
Short answer: No, never, ever messages, photos and account information will be shared on Facebook and will not be visible to anyone.