WhatsApp has recently rolled out an updated statement to their privacy policy document. One of the newest regulations is, now, you'll soon have to share your WhatsApp data with its parent company, Facebook.
"As part of the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information (see here) with, the other Facebook Companies," the statement reads.
The privacy policy will be effective starting February 8. If you do not agree by the aforementioned date, the company suggests you delete your account, or it will automatically be removed. However, WhatsApp also reassures that the messages will be end-to-end encrypted, meaning that neither Facebook nor WhatsApp could read them.
"We offer end-to-end encryption for our Services. End-to-end encryption means that your messages are encrypted to protect against us and third parties from reading them," the company says.
If you still can't see the notification, you can check out the full privacy policy here.
What It Means for WhatsApp Users
It means that WhatsApp will have the power to share its users' data with Facebook, despite Facebook's repeated controversies regarding privacy breaching.
"We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings, including the Facebook Company Products," the privacy policy reads.
The new policy does not offer a choice to opt-out of data sharing. The data includes your phone number for your WhatsApp account, your profile name, your photo, who you've been contacting, and the in-app transactions you've made over WhatsApp.
WhatsApp vows that it would never allow third-party banner ads to appear on its platform, "but if we ever do, we will update this Privacy Policy."
Monopolistic Accusation
For the last couple of years, Facebook has been on an acquisition spree.
WhatsApp remains Mark Zuckerberg's most significant acquisition deal with a record of $22 billion in 2012. Instagram, a photo and video sharing media, merged with Facebook in the same year for $1 billion. Facebook purchased Oculus VR two years later for $2 billion, and its most-recent acquisition deal occurred in 2019 when Facebook bought CTRL-Labs for $500 million.
In December 2020, Facebook was in hot water after the US government and 48 states filed a parallel lawsuit against the social media behemoth in a "major antitrust offense," accusing Zuckerberg and co to intentionally 'crush rivals' following the acquisition spree.
"Instead of competing on the merits, Facebook used its power to suppress competition so it could take advantage of users and make billions by converting personal data into a cash cow," said the leader of the campaign, Latitia James, as noted from the suit. James is also a New York-based legal attorney.
