WhatsApp Clarifies the Rumors Related to its Privacy Policy Update

WhatsApp’s change in its privacy policy was highly criticized and the messaging company came under fire with a loss in a significant number of users after the in-app notification started popping up in the app. 

WhatsApp is mostly used by people to communicate with family and friends but, an increasing number of people are also using it for business purposes. The messaging service owned by Facebook updated its terms of service and privacy policy. According to the update, all Android and iPhone users will receive an in-app notification and they have to agree to continue using the app. The update is related to the information on how the company will process the data and integrate it across Facebook or third parties. WhatsApp users felt betrayed and started questioning the company’s claims of respecting the privacy of its users. WhatsApp came with a detailed clarification because of rumors circulating the internet and according to one of its tweets shared on Tuesday it says that” We want to address some rumors and be 100% clear we continue to protect your private messages with end-to-end encryption.” 

WhatsApp claims that the objective of the update is to facilitate the businesses to choose a better hosting plan from the parent company Facebook and to further increase transparency. Businesses registered on Facebook will be given an option to chat via WhatsApp for answering queries related to the products and receipts. If the user message any business registered on Facebook via WhatsApp, his data would be shared to personalize ads. This update will not affect the privacy of the messages with family and friends and they will remain secured with end-to-end encryption. 

WhatsApp came up with all this clarification after Elon Musk tweeted to use the Signal app. In the previous Terms of Service WhatsApp gave its users the option of not sharing their WhatsApp data with Facebook which is not mentioned in the recent update. The new policy will be implemented on 8th February 2021. However, if you are still not comfortable with sharing your data, other alternatives like Signal and Telegram are still available which share far fewer data with third parties.