Still, bringing targeted ads to the platform at all is at odds with its identity as a “secure” messaging app — a principle its founders aimed to uphold. Just two years following Meta’s acquisition of WhatsApp, the app transitioned from charging 99 cents per year to a completely free model. “Targeted advertising is what makes me unhappy,” Acton said during a 2018 interview with Forbes in which he explained his departure. “It’s been thirteen years since our founders wrote about an early version of WhatsApp,” WhatsApp spokesperson Anaik von der Weid says in an emailed statement to The Verge. “This is another betrayal of the privacy protections that once distinguished WhatsApp.”Launching targeted advertising only adds to these concerns.