[kictanet] WhatsApp to Move Ahead with its Privacy Updates

[Jimmy Gitonga]

Liz, Ali and Barrack,

I would add that what I have seen from Facebook is that they "smelt blood in the water" during the pandemic. There is a bigger picture here.

1. Those of us who are “BBC" (Born Before Computers) can talk of walking away and life continues. But any urbanite born after Windows 95 does not have the “luxury”. The pandemic simply made digital interaction “essential"
2. Facebook has a collective “population” across their platforms of almost 3 billion. Let’s take 10% and assume these will do commerce on their platforms. That is a market the size of the USA or Europe north of the Alps or Nigeria combined with South Africa.
3. For developers, Facebook has introduced things like the Instagram Content Publishing API, which means "Instagram Business accounts can schedule and publish posts to their Instagram Feeds from third-party platforms.” Think integration with ERPs and CRMs.
4. And just like Microsoft and lately AWS, Facebook has created Facebook Developer certification so that one can be a technical expert in Facebook marketing products. <- A job right there that did not exist six months ago.

Just keep in mind the market being addressed here. The train left the station, as Barrack said. The potential money the "post BBC” generation on FB and other platforms are likely to make, considering people like Elsa Majimbo, are too tantalising to turn away from. These are the choices this generation has. Either one starves in a country run by thieves or jumps onto the digital platforms and make a life for oneself. Elsa’s dad told her that this “Internet” thing is getting in the way of her studies, considering that she is quite smart. Guess how that conversation went ...

Privacy, what privacy? Even if I say I want the contents of my emails to be “private” on Gmail, what I are really concerned about is how Google uses the access to my information in my InBox and how it “secures" it against leakage from "unauthorised” parties. Data “privacy” is concerned with "how data is shared with third parties.”  What people are interested in is the security or protection of data, not privacy in the “private” sense. A vast majority on Facebook platforms are going nowhere. Apple is playing the same game here with their “hardware” platforms, just more subtle.

Jimmy Gitonga
@Afrowave
Web : Motion
On 23 Feb 2021, 09:31 +0300, kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke, wrote:
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2021 09:29:52 +0300
> From: Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke>
> To: Liz Orembo <lizorembo at gmail.com>
> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] WhatsApp to Move Ahead with its Privacy
> Updates
> Message-ID:
> <CAPjmBy0ht03f=Q=hCPq-DH_nM7y3OYt4nj4sf+QhxX0XGAr0aQ at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Liz
>
> We have none. We gave away our rights. The only remedy is to walk away...
>
> Regards
>
> *Ali Hussein*
>
> Digital Transformation
>
> Tel: +254 713 601113
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
> <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>
>
> Any information of a personal nature expressed in this email are purely
> mine and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the
> organizations that I work with.
>
> On Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 9:12 AM Liz Orembo <lizorembo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Ali and Barrack, I totally agree with you.
> >
> > Lakini why are we only treating it as a matter of individual consent?
> >
> > Will this become a new trend where tech monopolies will be baiting people
> > with free products to a point their platforms become essential services,
> > then boom! New strange updates.
> >
> > Where does consumer protection come in.
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 23, 2021, 08:57 Ali Hussein via kictanet <
> > kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
> >
> >> @Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack at gmail.com> kabisa kaka.
> >>
> >> So here's the thing. Wacha nifungue roho as GG keeps on saying.
> >>
> >> I have been warning people for years that there's nothing for free.
> >> Facebook is a marketplace. And if you are not selling or buying you are the
> >> product. Plain and simple. Kwani hio platform ilijengwe na nini (how do you
> >> think the platform was built?) We have a saying in Kiswahili -
> >>
> >> Ukiona vyaelea jua vimeundwa.
> >>
> >> The choice is simple. Put up or ship out. If the Australian government
> >> has buckled to the muscle of Facebook who are we?
> >>
> >> :-)
> >>
> >> *Ali Hussein*
> >>
> >> Digital Transformation
>
>
> >> On Tue, Feb 23, 2021 at 8:51 AM Barrack Otieno <otieno.barrack at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Morning Listers,
> >>>
> >>> Looks like the train already left the station. I have noticed lately
> >>> that when i discuss a product on Whatsapp, i see it on my Facebook
> >>> timeline. On the flip side i don't mind the new development since it makes
> >>> my decision making easier. Siri haiwekwi kwa simu ama namna gani @Ali
> >>> Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke>
> >>>
> >>> Regards
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