Well this is kind of obvious, is it not? Of course Facebook is going to have access to your data, they run the service. It's the same as expecting Google to not have access to your nest data, or Amazon to not have access to your twitch data.
The problem is that when Whatsapp gained traction, they were a company that built much of their reputation on charging a small yearly fee rather than selling your data or putting up advertisements. Or to quote 2012's Whatsapp once more:
Advertising isn't just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought. At every company that sells ads, a significant portion of their engineering team spends their day tuning data mining, writing better code to collect all your personal data, upgrading the servers that hold all the data and making sure it's all being logged and collated and sliced and packaged and shipped out... And at the end of the day the result of it all is a slightly different advertising banner in your browser or on your mobile screen.
Remember, when advertising is involved you the user are the product.
The problem is that when Whatsapp gained traction, they were a company that built much of their reputation on charging a small yearly fee rather than selling your data or putting up advertisements. Or to quote 2012's Whatsapp once more:
Advertising isn't just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought. At every company that sells ads, a significant portion of their engineering team spends their day tuning data mining, writing better code to collect all your personal data, upgrading the servers that hold all the data and making sure it's all being logged and collated and sliced and packaged and shipped out... And at the end of the day the result of it all is a slightly different advertising banner in your browser or on your mobile screen.
Remember, when advertising is involved you the user are the product.
https://blog.whatsapp.com/245/Why-we-dont-sell-ads?
It's clear why people are upset.