Did you receive an in-app pop-up message about the upcoming update in WhatsApp’s terms and privacy policy? The Facebook-owned messaging giant has started informing users of important changes to its privacy policy.
As seen in the image below, WhatsApp lists the key updates to its privacy policy. The company is making changes to how it processes your data, how businesses can utilize Facebook services to store their chats, and its integrations across products. The latter could be talking about Messenger Rooms integrations, cross-story sharing, and more. You will see a pop-up similar to the one shown right here:
You will see the privacy policy update pop-up message on Android, iOS, and WhatsApp Web in the coming weeks. You need to accept the new privacy policy before 8th February. You will be forced to accept these after this date. If you choose not to, then you will have to lose access to your WhatsApp. You can choose to delete your account and move to any of its plethora of alternatives.
WhatsApp goes on to further explain the policy updates in detail via the legal page on its official website. One of the biggest changes to data collection is the storage of media on the company’s servers (in encrypted form) to aid efficient forwarding. Yeah, if you don’t already know, WhatsApp can now keep track of forwards and even give you the option to search the web when it thinks a message or media has been forwarded too many times.
Further, WhatsApp reiterates that it does collect your location information. But, you do have to grant permission for the same when sharing your location with someone in the app. The privacy policy, however, adds that the app can use other location-related data, including IP address and phone number area code, to determine your general location.
As for businesses, the new privacy policy says that they can share your information with third-party service providers. Facebook is also a third-party in this case. Its services come in handy to manage messages and other services offered by a business via the messaging app. We can also expect the integration of WhatsApp with more of Facebook’s products in the future.
“We work with third-party service providers and other Facebook Companies [which includes Messenger, Instagram, Oculus, and Portal] to help us operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services,” says WhatsApp in the privacy policy.
So yeah, there’s nothing major that you need to worry about, and can continue using WhatsApp like you already did. The company has simply offered insight into the data collection processes after the rollout of new features, integrations, and more over the previous year.
