New WhatsApp update gives scary details about how user data is used

As you all might know that WhatsApp has updated its privacy policy and this has placed WhatsApp under extreme scrutiny. The new update has raised concerns over user privacy and how WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook, deal with user data.

The new policy will go into effect from the 8th of February and users will have to accept these new terms in order to use WhatsApp after that. The policy offers more details about its integration with Facebook and how interaction with a business on WhatsApp impacts user data.

One of the biggest questions in everyone’s mind is how WhatsApp will treat personal chats. Well, there is no change in this matter, your chats go through an end to end encryption so no third party can read them.

But WhatsApp has detailed about what all information it is going to share with Facebook now. Well, this is something that is bothering a lot of users. It includes your Phone Model, OS, Battery Status, Signal Strength, IP address, your WhatsApp usage, and other basic WhatsApp info. Also as WhatsApp has introduced a payments system, it will also collect your payment and transaction details.

It turns out WhatsApp is trying to access more details at the hardware level. Now all this data will be used to serve more personalized ads on Facebook. This is also in-line with Mark Zuckerberg’s cross-platform vision across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Another major concern is how your messages sent to WhatsApp business accounts will impact your data. It makes clear that content shared with the business account might be visible to several people in that business. And if that business is working with third-party services, your data may be shared with them too. WhatsApp recommends that you get in touch with your respective business to know more about their privacy policy and how they share your data with those services.

This is a big concern as your data shared with businesses is not really that secure.

With these changes, WhatsApp has emerged to show how deeply integrated it is with Facebook now, and how your data is in hands of Facebook directly.

Many users see this as a reason to shift to a different messaging app that offers better protection to their data and privacy. Two major apps among these are Telegram and Signal. Whereas most people are familiar with Telegram and how it offers a secure messaging platform, Signal is another app that has recently gained a lot of traction.

Recently SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk endorsed Signal in one of his tweets, giving the app a massive surge in new users. Signal is a non-profit and open-source app that focuses primarily on user privacy and the app is founded by Brian Acton who was also the founder of WhatsApp. Signal has become the no.1 free app on Apple Store.

Let us know your thought on the new privacy policy and are you making a switch away from WhatsApp.

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