WhatsApp changed its privacy policy, creating an uproar all over the world. Mountains of questions arose over the Facebook-owned instant messaging app. People believe that now WhatsApp will share more personal data of users with Facebook than before. This is the reason that in the last few days, lakhs of people started using Signal and Telegram messaging apps. In view of the mass exodus, the messaging platform released several statements and even used the status feature on its own platform to clarify the new policy to users. Now if you are still confused about how safe the new instant messaging app is, then we are telling you some things. After this, whether to use it or not is your decision.
WhatsApp made changes in its privacy policy (WhatsApp New Privacy Policy) at the beginning of the year and communicated these changes to all users. Users who opened their WhatsApp for the first time after the policy was implemented were informed about the policy update and were also given the ‘Agree’ option. Users were also given time till February 8 to accept the policy and it was said that those who do not accept it, their account will be deleted. Then what happened, there was an uproar all over the world. There were many points in the policy which talked about sharing data with Facebook. Due to this, people started deciding to boycott WhatsApp and choose Telegram and Signal.
Also read: 5 such WhatsApp features that you will not find on Signal
Now in view of the migration, in the last few weeks, WhatsApp released statements several times and also took advantage of the status feature of its app (WhatsApp Status) and started providing clarification to all the users. The information given in this status is as follows:-
1. WhatsApp says they can’t see users’ personal messages or listen to their calls, and neither can Facebook. WhatsApp says that whatever you share, stays between you. This is because your personal messages are protected by end-to-end encryption. WhatsApp also promises that (translated) “We will never weaken this protection and we clearly label each chat so you know our commitment.”
2. In the second point, instant messaging apps have clarified that they do not collect logs of messages and calls made by users to other users. They say that this information is collected by telecom companies, but WhatsApp believes that keeping the data of 2 trillion people is a privacy and security risk, so they do not do so.
Also read: Signal Vs WhatsApp Vs Facebook Messenger Vs Telegram: What personal details of users are instant messaging apps collecting?
3. The third point says (translated) “We can’t see your shared location, and neither can Facebook. When you share your location with someone on WhatsApp, your location is protected by end-to-end encryption.” This means that your location can only be seen by you and the person you’ve shared your location with.
4. In the next point, WhatsApp says that “We do not share your contacts with Facebook. When you give us access, we only use the phone number from your phone book, and we do not share your contacts with other Facebook apps.” Don’t share contact lists.”
5. The next point says “We use group membership to send messages and to protect our service from spam. We do not share this data with Facebook for advertising purposes. These personal chats are end-to-end encrypted.” So that we can’t see their content.”
Also read: WhatsApp Alternative Apps in India: If you don’t want to use WhatsApp, then take a look at these apps.
WhatsApp has also given two suggestions in the end. WhatsApp says that users can set their messages to disappear. Let us tell you that this feature automatically deletes the messages sent by you as soon as a fixed time limit is over. Apart from this, users have been suggested that they can also download their data. With this the user can see which of his data is with WhatsApp.
WhatsApp says that these changes have been made only for business accounts. On the FAQ page, the company wrote that (translated) “We are working to better support the 175 million people who message a business account every day. This update is related to optional business features, through “We are striving to make communication with businesses safer, better and easier than ever before.”
