WhatsApp issues clarification over new privacy policy - ‘individual chats to remain private’
- 3 years ago
WhatsApp – the instant messaging platform has since the past few days been at the receiving end of heavy criticism due to its recently announced updated privacy policy, which it has made it mandatory all users to agree to it.
Social media users are giving WatsApp a hard with some even switching to alternative platforms basically due to the lack of option and the removal of the points indicating user discretion in the sharing of data with parent company Facebook.
However, now, WhatsApp has issued a clarification regarding the new policy, saying that individual chats would not be affected by the changes whatsoever.
To rebut criticism WhatsApp has now issued a clarification regarding the new policy informing users that individual chats will not be affected by the changes.
The Facebook-owned platform has even stated in a couple of posts shared on microblogging site Twitter, that the privacy policy update would in no way affect privacy of the users’ chats with their friends and family.
WhatsApp has further clarified in its tweet that the messages sent on chats would continue to be protected by end-to-end encryption.
Furthermore, the instant messaging platform has assured users that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook
will be able to see messages users sent to each other or even be able to hear the conversations over calls either.
WhatsApp further went on to state that the popular platform did not maintain a record of who was messaging or calling whom, and the groups on WhatsApp were also private and end-to-end ecrypted.
Importantly, the location shared by its social media users could also not be accessed by either WhatsApp or Facebook.
WhatsApp also affirmed that it did not share anyone’s contacts with Facebook and as a proof of additional security users could also set their messages to disappear, and they could download their own data.
The popular social media messaging sire in a newly released FAQ page, informed users that the recent update was rather related to the managing of businesses on WhatsApp, which is an optional feature businesses can use as it offers some additional features that aid in smooth running of business-to-customer communication.
Further clarifications on WhatsApp’s FAQ pages, the platform repeatedly highlighted that all messages sent on private individual or group chats are protected by end-to-end encryption, including the location that one user shares with another.
Apart from that, the instant messaging platform also asserted that while global telecom service providers do maintain logs of calls and messages, WhatsApp chooses not to do so for its 2 billion users. This was solely because WhatsApp believes that this would entail a huge privacy and security risk to its multitude of users.
The contacts that WhatsApp accesses are only meant to provide users with a quick messaging platform, it said, and WhatsApp did not share these contacts with Facebook.
This clarification has come amidst major uproar over the privacy policy which is set to come into effect on February 8 this year.
As far as businesses were concerned, the platform said that users’ interactions with the business accounts on WhatsApp clearly indicates in the chat that it can be used by the businesses to improve their own marketing, and businesses have an option to choose and share this information with Facebook.
What this basically means is that users’ chats with businesses regarding any queries, for example, their shopping activities, purchase receipts, and interaction with businesses etc across all the other social media sites like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram could be collected by Facebook to personalize ads and shopping experiences.
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