Owned by Facebook—WhatsApp is a popular messaging platform that has updated its privacy policy. The users received a pop-up alert about the updated WhatsApp privacy policy. This stimulated a huge debate about Facebook’s promise of privacy and keeping the users’ interest at stake. Thus, people will either have to live with these rules, keeping in mind the conditions, or switch to a new app altogether.
Facebook promised to maintain the initial policy
During the acquisition of Whatsapp by Facebook, it had vowed to maintain user privacy protection. They had also stated that no changes would be made to it. The messaging app’s data was shared with Facebook for better ad targeting by default. However, the users could opt-out any time without any strings attached then. Now, the opt-out option is going to be completely removed by February 8. If at all you wish you decline the privacy policy, you will be unable to use WhatsApp at all.
The app has landed in the wrong hands, and now Facebook is doing everything to exploit user data. In order to generate more revenue, Facebook has taken this drastic step which affects the users’ privacy.
About the new policy
The privacy policy and terms of service have been laid down in a long 8,000 odd words legal jargon. This ultimately makes no sense to the layman. To get straight to the point, the service will share data with the parent company that includes location data, battery level, IMEI number, mobile network, and even more.
Apart from this, the groups you are participating in, real-time status, profile photo, or even the data about your online status on the app will also be shared with the parent company. Whatsapp now has a separate section named ‘Transactions and Payments data’ in the updated policy. The information of your payments made via Whatsapp will also be stored as stated by the policy.
Despite the layperson thinking there might be no repercussions but only the experts know there’s a lot to lose in the long run. Keeping aside this, some alternative apps will help you—Signal, Telegram, Threema, etc.
