Recently I noticed that Shopee Malaysia has decided to send Authentication link via Whatsapp instead of SMS. Firstly I thought it was just a cost-cutting measure and just shrugged it off. Then I got a notification via Whatsapp again that one of my items in my “Likes” are back on stock, this immediately made me worried about my privacy.

Firstly, I did not opt-in/agree for any “option” to allow communication via Whatsapp, meaning Shopee is deciding to send a “ping” to check if the user has Whatsapp and communicate via it. Secondly, I am not sure if there is any option to disable it, but Shopee should not be using this method without end user concern.

I know there are a lot of API’s which can check if a user is using Whatsapp and also if the user is an active Whatsapp user, but forcefully using Whatsapp to communicate is not right, especially to send promos and even authentication link. So what is next? Banks will send TAC code via Whatsapp? Rubbish concept and this means Shopee just killed my peace of mind on privacy.

Just wondering, what would happen if I blocked Shopee account on Whatsapp? Will I have limited usage to Shopee? Oh man, thinking of all this just makes me want to stop using Shopee.