New WhatsApp Privacy Policy: Everything You Need to Know

WhatsApp has eventually revealed its new privacy policy and the app's users have a timeline up to 8th February to accept the new terms and conditions. The new WhatsApp privacy policy explains how the data is impacted while business interaction on the platform and explains elaborately the integration of Facebook, the parent company of WhatsApp.

Will your texts be shared with Facebook?

All the WhatsApp personal chats will remain end-to-end encrypted and any third party won't be able to read them. So, the answer is No, it won,t share your personal messages with Facebook. WhatsApp in a statement mentioned that "The update does not change WhatsApp's data-sharing practices with Facebook and does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family… WhatsApp remains deeply committed to protecting people's privacy."

Certain data will be shared with Facebook:

It's not new that some data are exchanging with Facebook but it was going on with certain restrictions. In the Europian Countries, WhatsApp users can opt-out of this data exchange issue because of their strong privacy networks but the rest of the world lacks it especially in India.

WhatsApp shares the following information with Facebook and its other companies: account registration information (phone number), transaction data (WhatsApp now has payments in India), service-related information, information on how you interact with others (including businesses), mobile device information, and IP address. It is also collecting more information at a device hardware-level now.

Why this matter?

The policy gives reasons for the data-sharing with Facebook: from ensuring better security and fighting spam to improving user experience, which was there in the previous policy as well. But the new policy is a further sign of WhatsApp's deeper integration into the Facebook group of companies. CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2019 talked about his cross-platform vision across Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp — he called it "interoperability". Instagram's Direct Messages and Facebook Messenger have already been integrated. Facebook wants to bring more services to WhatsApp and has added a feature called Rooms. The integration has been taking place for a while now.

Advertisements:

WhatsApp won't be showing any ads because the messages will remain encrypted but But the increased data sharing with Facebook will be used to improve ad experience across other products of the company.

About data shared with business:

The new policy tells us the ways businesses get data when a user interacts with them on the platform: content shared with a business on WhatsApp will be visible to "several people in that business". This is important because WhatsApp now has over 50 million business accounts. For WhatsApp, this is a potential monetization model.

The policy says that some "businesses might be working with third-party service providers (which may include Facebook) to help manage their communications with their customers". To understand how the business is handling the information you share with them, WhatsApp also recommends that users must read the "business privacy policy or contact the business directly".

Is it necessary to accept the policy?

Yes, there is no other option other than to agree but it's up to you if you want to use it or not. There are other apps in the market which are free with end-to-end encryption like Signal and Telegram which are gaining popularity in this situation.

Indian Government on New WhatsApp policy:

Due to lots of criticism and concerns rising among the humongous users of Whatsapp regarding the privacy policy, the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT has asked the messaging platform to drop out the recent change. In its serious worded letter to WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart, the ministry has slammed the platform's "all or nothing" approaches. The letter noted that the proposed changes to the privacy policy raise "grave concerns regarding the implications for the choice and autonomy of Indian citizens."

A petition has also been filed in the Supreme Court against WhatsApp. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) filed a plea urging the court to direct the platform to drop out its new privacy policy.

Furthermore, with intense criticism worldwide, the Facebook-owned platform has deferred its new data privacy policy by three months.

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