What’s new in WhatsApp’s privacy update?

From February 8 onwards people using the instant messaging application WhatsApp will have to accept its latest privacy policy guidelines in order to continue using the platform While the older policy stated ldquorespect for your privacy is encoded into our DNArdquo there is no such mention in the Facebookowned entityrsquos latest privacy guidelines However WhatsApp remains endtoend encryptedwhich means that it cannot see your messages or share them with anyone But with three primary updates there will be further integration of WhatsApp and Facebookrsquos other productsSrinivas KodaliFrom now on when users rely on ldquothirdparty services or other Facebook Company Products that are integrated with our Services those thirdparty services may receive information about what you or others share with themrdquo At the same time the latest privacy policy guidelines also state that when someone is using ldquothirdparty services or other Facebook Company Products their own terms and privacy policies will govern your use of those services and productsrdquo When it comes to hardware data WhatsApp will collect ldquobattery level signal strength app version browser information mobile network connection information including phone number mobile operator or ISP language and time zone IP address device operations information and identifiers including identifiers unique to Facebook Company Products associated with the same device or accountrdquo Lastly deleting your WhatsApp account doesnrsquot necessarily mean that your data has also been deleted ldquoWhen you delete your account it does not affect your information related to the groups you created or the information other users have relating to you such as their copy of the messages you sent themrdquo states the new January 2021 privacy policyldquoThey are trying to integrate WhatsApp systemswhich they claimed were endtoend encryptedwith Facebook systems that are not endtoend encryptedrdquo said independent data researcher Srinivas Kodali ldquoBasically the latest privacy policy guidelines state that your data will be shared with Facebook which was not the case previously The last major update change happened in 2016 at the time WhatsApp said that it would be sharing some of its usersrsquo data with Facebook but users could opt out of it However this opting out provision is gone now and what they are saying is that they are compulsorily going to share everyonersquos data with FacebookrdquoAccording to Kodali this change from optional to compulsory is taking place because WhatsApprsquos infrastructure is being integrated with Facebookrsquos infrastructure ldquoFacebook essentially claims this is being done only so that businesses can operate better over WhatsApprdquo he said ldquoWhatsApp wants to enter the ecommerce business in India and other countrieshellipand in order to do so they really need to understand people better For example if Facebook knows I am a rich person then companies using Facebook can start selling their products much better towards mehellipwhich is why this whole data sharing needs to happen for Facebook to make some money out of WhatsApp Even though Facebook bought WhatsApp the latter doesnrsquot make any money for them yet WhatsApp has a lot of activity on it because it is endtoend encrypted but there isnrsquot much data going to Facebook which is why they cannot really make a profit out of itnot to the extent that they have made out of Instagram and Facebook itself On Instagram you have ads and ecommerce transactions and data is shared with Facebook as well This doesnrsquot really happen on WhatsAppbut is now going to startrdquoLastly Kodali claims that ldquopeople are really concernedrdquo about the fact that their data will be shared with Facebook ldquoOn some of the WhatsApp groups that I am a part of people have already started migrating over to Signal and Telegram This trend has started in the US since Friday night because Elon Musk tweeted asking people to move to Signalhellipwhose servers are being bombarded with new usersrdquoAnand Prakash CEO AppSecure Security said ldquoAs of now we donrsquot know what Facebook is going to do with this data But in the future if your contacts are shared from WhatsApp to Facebook then it may happen that Facebook shows you a friendcontact suggestion of someone who is your WhatsApp contactrdquoAccording to Prakash this data sharing from WhatsApp to Facebook sets a ldquodangerous precedentrdquo because ldquothe intention for using this data is not out in the open yetrdquo He said ldquoIf your WhatsApp contacts also start getting transferred to Facebook and the latter starts showing it and using it for marketing purposesthen it is a riskrdquo