WhatsApp confirms user privacy after backlash over sharing data with Facebook

After a backlash after Change its terms and privacy policy To incorporate a large amount of data sharing with Facebook, WhatsApp now reassures users about the privacy measures built into its app.

Last week, WhatsApp began notifying users of updates to the terms of service and the app’s privacy policy. The updated agreements, which users must agree to in order to continue to use WhatsApp, explicitly grant its parent company Facebook access to a large amount of user data. While WhatsApp has shared some user data with Facebook for years, this update integrates data sharing for all users, including those who have chosen to opt out of sharing data with Facebook in the past.

The Updated terms WhatsApp helps integrate more closely into Facebook’s suite of products, as it aims to provide a more consistent experience for users across services, and enable the company to use aggregate information about all users to display targeted ads. The widely reported change was met with an outcry on social media, which led to a spread Rush to download the competing messaging app SignalAnd even triggered an antitrust investigation in Turkey.

Through posts on social media, WhatsApp now assures users that “updating our privacy policy does not affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family.” She also has Add to the FAQ To address users’ privacy concerns related to sharing data with Facebook.

The FAQ explains that WhatsApp and Facebook cannot see the user’s private messages or hear their calls. Records of messaging and calling users are not kept and subscriber location, contact information and group membership are kept private.

WhatsApp suggests that the majority of data sharing with Facebook derives from communicating with companies that use Facebook’s hosting services or after using Facebook-branded merchant services such as stores. Either of them may result in targeted ads to users.

However, it is noticeable that WhatsApp focused mostly on data that is not shared with Facebook, rather than what is there. This Frequently Asked Questions Update does not acknowledge the fact that, as stated in the updated Privacy Policy, WhatsApp shares device, interaction, IP address, and unspecified ‘other information’ information with Facebook.