WhatsApp’s New Privacy Policy Forces Users to Share Info with Facebook

For those who are using Whatsapp these past few days, you’ll notice a pop-up which needs to be tapped on before you can open up the app.

Those chunky texts are basically snippets of the new privacy policy from Whatsapp.

Pretty sure you’ve just tapped on “Agree”.

Some key updates include new additions to Whatsapp’s service and how they’re processing users’ data, how businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage their Whatsapp chats, as well as how Whatsapp is partnering Facebook to offer integrations across the Facebook Company products.

Essentially, it’s saying that the company will be sharing data with Facebook, and that users will have till 8 February 2021 to agree on the new terms.

Should users not agree with this new policy, they’ll no longer be able to use Whatsapp for texting.

Sharing Data with Facebook

If you’re still rather puzzled by all these strange things going on with your texting app, you can read more about the new privacy policy here.

In essence, users’ private data, such as phone numbers, will be shared with Facebook, which is the parent company of Whatsapp.

The update is meant to serve as a form of integration across the Facebook Company products, which includes Instagram and Facebook Messenger.

Some data which Whatsapp automatically collects include information about your location, the device and connection you are using to access Whatsapp, as well as log information.

Things like the operating system you are using for Whatsapp, the battery level and IP address are information Whatsapp already has in the database.

This update will be implemented worldwide to more than 2 billion Whatsapp users.

How Whatsapp Uses Information

The new policy also provides details on how Whatsapp uses the information it has collected from users.

One of the ways in which Whatsapp uses the data is to verify accounts and protect its users against bad experiences and spam.

But here’s the thing: the company may also provide users marketing for its services and those of the Facebook Companies.

Which is why everyone’s going apeshit, because Facebook is going to know more about you: so much so that the advertisements you see on the app (and also on Instagram since Facebooks owns Instagram) might reveal a lot more about yourself.

However, one thing to highlight is that Whatsapp will continue to disallow third-party banner ads. So we’re being sparred from these ads which interrupt us while we’re spamming emojis to our friends.

On a side note, do you know that you can mute a chat which you’ve been wanting to not only just for a week, but forever?

Yes, those chat groups which keeps your phone vibrating every other second.

All you need to do is to select the ‘Always’ option when you tap on ‘Mute Notifications’ in the selected chat group, and you’ll be spared from these messages forever.

But of course, you can’t mute WhatsApp from passing date to Facebook, and showing your advertisements that are so relevant, you wonder if the app is recording your conversation or not.

Fun fact: it’s not. Watch this video to the end to understand more (and also subscribe our YouTube channel for more informative videos!):

Featured Image: Rahul Ramachandram / Shutterstock.com