WhatsApp’s New Privacy Policy Explained
WhatsApp has updated its privacy policy, and users have until February 8 to accept the new terms and conditions. Watch our latest video to learn more about it.
Facebook Inc has been working to integrate services across Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. Mark Zuckerberg had already announced this in October 2020. FaceBook Messenger and Instagram are already integrated. Now FaceBook wants to go the same with FacebookB & WhatsApp. A new notification has been popping up on everyone’s WhatsApp telling them that it's terms and policies are being updated. Users have until February 8 to accept these new terms, and WhatsApp has indicated that users may not be able to access their WhatsApp accounts if they do not accept the new terms and agreements. This new update has caused a lot of concern over the new privacy policy, especially with respect to data sharing with its parent company Facebook. Your privacy is impacted. WhatsApp holds some data about you. So does FaceBook. If the two companies share data with each other, then FaceBook would have more data about the person. WhatsApp will share the following information with Facebook and its other companies: account registration information, transaction data, service-related information, information on how you interact with others, mobile device information, and IP address.
FaceBook can now compare contacts on WhatsApp, it will also be able to access information shared on WhatsApp groups and compare these to Facebook activity. Plus if you use WhatsApp transaction services, Facebook may be able to associate bank accounts, or card details. FaceBook has however stressed that no third party will be able to access the information. Once you accept the T&C there will be a lot of information that will be shared between Facebook and WhatsApp. Since such a large amount of information will be shared, data leak is possible. If you are used to sharing private information or having private conversations on WhatsApp, you either need to stop or need to be aware that the conversation is not going to be private.
Either you accept the policies or you exit WhatsApp. If you are uncomfortable about the policies but you can’t stop using WhatsApp, you can keep one SIM card just to use WhatsApp and have private conversations on another SIM. Since these T&C have gone viral, people are very concerned about their privacy and the data being misused. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the world's richest man Tweeted that and supported downloading Apps such as Signal & Telegram. Since these were safer alternatives than WhatsApp. After his Tweet, More than 100,000 users installed Signal across the app stores of Apple and Google in the last two days, while Telegram picked up nearly 2.2 million downloads.
