Back in 2014 when Facebook originally acquired WhatsApp we were all assured that our data would remain private. Today that promise was broken with the company advising users of new terms and privacy policy that outlines how data will be openly shared with its parent Facebook and failure to accept them would terminate your account.
Over 2 billion WhatsApp users were greeted with a new popup today indicating the company was updating its policies. The change clearly outlines how data will be freely shared with Facebook family of companies. Beginning in February WhatsApp will openly provide details such as:
- Your phone number
- Your contact’s phone numbers
- Profile names, pictures and statuses
- Diagnostic data; and more
While most will likely hit “Agree” and move on as we all typically do with such policies, the significance of the amount of information and the implications of ones privacy and security in freely providing it should be something of grave concern.
9to5mac.com has an interesting piece that details what WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and other messaging platforms such as iMessage and Signal store and provide partners access to that should not be missed.