WhatsApp will, over the next few weeks, become completely free. The catch is that we'll be able to use WhatsApp to "communicate with businesses or organisations"

It's a never-ending game of cat and mouse. Wherever we end up, businesses and advertisers hunt us down. You can imagine sitting at an Everest base camp at the culmination of a Himalayan trek, looking at your phone and seeing a jovial message informing you of some really great takeaways in your area.

With nearly a billion users and not an advert to be seen, WhatsApp represented something of a refuge from sales pitches; the service generated income by introducing a 69p subscription charge to users who joined the service after 2012 (though it's still free for the first year). But now, in a supposedly magnanimous announcement, that charge has been waived. WhatsApp will, over the next few weeks, become completely free. The catch – which, of course, is presented to us as an exciting opportunity – is that we'll be able to use WhatsApp to "communicate with businesses or organisations". There's no escape. Where we go, they follow.