I don’t pretend to understand trillions or even billions. I’m more comfortable with £49.50 at Marks & Spencer and a bagful of stuff I can eat. But Mark Zuckerberg seems to be delighted with his purchase of just-another-comms-app WhatsApp using Facebook’s small change. To me, though, this sounds like a lot of money for not a lot. I remains to be seen. Zuckerberg, meanwhile, admits to a bit of doubt: “I could be wrong.”
WhatsApp, just like all similar “free” services, politely asks for your permission to access your contacts list. Invariably you agree because there isn’t much sense in using the service unless you can readily find numbers. Some of these contacts-grabbing apps reside in very foreign climes with little control over your data. To avoid temptation, I’ve deleted WhatsApp.