Following WhatsApp's announcement of a new privacy policy that will allow the company to share user data with Facebook, there has been widespread backlash, as many are concerned about the implications this move will have on privacy.
Now the company has published a new FAQ page, where it clarifies the new positions of its privacy policy.
The new update has nothing to do with users' conversations or profile data. Instead, the change focuses on how businesses that use WhatsApp for customer service can store logs of their conversations on Facebook servers. This is something the company believes should be made clear in its privacy policy.
However, a wave of misinformation on social media combined with Facebook's negative history with regard to its users' data has led to serious reactions, with many users abandoning WhatsApp and preferring competitors such as Signal and Telegram.
Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk has told his more than 42 million followers to use Signal. In fact, in recent days, Signal has become one of the most downloaded apps on Android and iOS , and its verification system for registering new users has repeatedly come under pressure. Telegram, which is currently in second place, saw more than 25 million new users sign up in the last 72 hours.
WhatsApp executives, as well as Instagram head Adam Mosseri and Facebook AR/VR head Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, are now trying to clarify the situation.
"We want to be clear that the policy update does not in any way affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family. Instead, this update includes changes related to sending messages to a business on WhatsApp, which is optional and provides further transparency about how data is collected and used," the company writes on the new FAQ page.
It also emphasizes that neither Facebook nor WhatsApp read users' message logs, nor monitor calls, and that WhatsApp does not store user location data or share contact information with Facebook.
