“Today, we’re updating WhatsApp’s terms and privacy policy for the first time in four years as part of our plans to test ways for people to communicate with businesses in the months ahead”, the company said in a blog post.
Advertisement
The online chat app has changed its privacy policy to allow sharing the information, which includes the phone numbers of its users, with its parent company. Specifically, the letter noted pledges from both companies, including a statement by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in which he promised, “We are absolutely not going to change plans around WhatsApp and the way it uses user data”.
WhatsApp’s billion-plus users will start receiving notifications that their data – including their phone numbers – will be handed over to Facebook from Thursday 25 August.
WhatsApp added: “We won’t post or share your WhatsApp number with others, including on Facebook, and we still won’t sell, share, or give your phone number to advertisers”.
“The updated documents also reflect that we’ve joined Facebook and that we’ve recently rolled out many new features, like end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp Calling and messaging tools like WhatsApp for web and desktop”.
Gmail application, acquired by Facebook in 2014, has updated its terms of use.
The move will also help WhatsApp increase its revenue. According WhatsApp, it will “coordinate advantage and improve experiences across our services and those of Facebook”. WhatsApp gives several examples: prevent a flight delay, delivery of a purchase or a bank fraud. There appear to be two options for opting out. The second way is to go click Settings, then Account and deselect the “share my account info” checkbox.
Jonathan Armstrong, partner at law firm Cordery, told InfoSecurity Magazine that changes such as these could result in regulatory problems if users feel they haven’t been adequately notified. A key concern is whether there will be compliance with data protection laws.
The ICO, meanwhile, said it was looking into the changes.
Advertisement
“We’ve been informed of the changes”.
