What does WhatsApp's new privacy policy mean for its users?

WhatsApp has updated its privacy policy in early 2021, and all of its 2 billion users must accept it if they want to continue using the popular messaging app. According to the notifications received by users (written in legal jargon not easily interpreted by the average user), WhatsApp reserves the right to share information it collects about you to other Facebook products, such as Instagram, regardless of whether you have an account on those platforms. This data includes your usage habits and your phone’s unique ID, among other metadata. Your conversations on WhatsApp are still safe, though.

Users had the option of sharing their data with Facebook since 2016, but as of May 15th, it will be mandatory for all users. Initially, the policy was to be enforced on February 8th, but WhatsApp decided to postpone the date owing to the massive confusion and concerns among users. The policy also stated that Facebook would be giving companies the option to use Facebook servers for their business needs. This means that companies may choose to store backups of conversations you have with WhatsApp business accounts on Facebook servers.

Even though businesses have the option of storing conversations on Facebook servers, Facebook will not have access to those files. What businesses do with the information shared during the conversation is entirely up to them. Any privacy concerns must be clarified with the business directly.

Your privacy is a myth.

There is a lot of confusion regarding this new policy. WhatsApp faced a lot of heat, and many users jumped ship to alternate apps like Signal and Telegram. Signal especially faced an unprecedented surge in the number of users, which led to a delay for users in receiving confirmation codes due to heavy server loads. However, users can rest assured that WhatsApp can’t read your conversations with your friends and family, as all chats are still end-to-end encrypted. Even if WhatsApp gets access to chat files, they won’t be able to decrypt it. It’ll just be a load of gibberish. This holds for both personal and business accounts.

In conclusion, deciding to leave WhatsApp or to continue using the application is entirely up to the user. Most of the apps and services you use every day collect your metadata for various purposes. Since we rarely read their privacy policies while making an account, we agree to everything unknowingly. WhatsApp just had the decency to notify us about it specifically. There’s no need to panic over the new privacy policy. Your chats are safe, and a small amount of compromise in privacy is applicable for any service you use online, not just WhatsApp.