Navigating WhatsApp's Latest Privacy Shifts – Comprehensive Analysis by MalwareFox

Navigating WhatsApp’s Latest Privacy Shifts – Comprehensive Analysis by MalwareFox

WhatsApp is undoubtedly the most used messaging app globally, with a user base of over 2 billion across 180 countries. These users account for more than 65 billion message exchanges and 2 billion minutes of voice and video calls combined per day!

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Recently, WhatsApp is in the news for the announcement they have made to make some vital changes in their Privacy Policy. The statement is receiving criticism from every direction because privacy is being overlooked by the messaging company. The users are given time till February 8 to accept the new terms and conditions, and then the WhatsApp organization would force it on them.

Let us take a deep dive into the matter and find out what is all the fuss about the latest amendments to WhatsApp Privacy Policy.

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What are the Changes in the WhatsApp Privacy Policy?

On the morning of January 6, WhatsApp users received a notification on opening the application. The notification addresses the changes that WhatsApp is making in its Privacy Policy.

The highlight of the announcement is whatever information that WhatsApp collects would now automatically be shared with its parent company Facebook. The list of the information that WhatsApp would send to Facebook includes your – battery level, signal strength, app version, browser information, mobile network, connection information (including phone number, mobile operator, or ISP), language and time zone, IP address, device operations information, identifiers, contacts list, groups you are part of, profile photo, online status, transaction and payments data.

The company says the data is being shared to enhance the user experience and provide better ‘security’ across all ofFacebook and its children’s apps like Instagram and WhatsApp itself.

The WhatsApp users are disappointed with this latest reform because that is not what they were promised when Facebook acquired WhatsApp in the year 2014.

What was the initial promise by WhatsApp?

When Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014, the founders promised that they would never compromise on the original Privacy Policy of the messaging app, and it would continue as it is. Though Facebook was allowed to access the data collected by WhatsApp, users always had an option to opt out without any commitment.

But from February 8, 2021, the opt-out option would not be available, and users would be forced to either agree to the new terms or leave WhatsApp forever. This U-turn from the company is disappointing, especially knowing the past reputation of Facebook as the user data exploiter. This whole fiasco also puts a question mark on WhatsApp’s past measures to protect the users’ privacy, like the end-to-end encryption of the chats, which was introduced in 2016.

What about the Chats and Voice & Video Calls?

As already stated, WhatsApp comes with end-to-end encryption, so as per that, there would not be any monitoring of your private and group chats. Theoretically, with end-to-end encryption, neither WhatsApp nor Facebook nor any other third-party can access your messages. WhatsApp does not save your messages on its server once they are delivered. Until the messages, documents, or media files are undelivered, WhatsApp stores them temporarily in the encrypted form for 30 days. After 30 days, the undelivered messages are automatically cleared from the servers.

So, the Privacy Policy’s latest reforms do not change the way WhatsApp treats private and group chats.

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Will WhatsApp show Ads using the collected data?

WhatsApp has always been ad-free since its inception, and as of now, there is no news of displaying the ads in the app. However, the data collected from WhatsApp would be used by Facebook for displaying the ads on its other platforms like Facebook App, Instagram, and Messenger.

Why is Facebook after WhatsApp users’ data?

Facebook says that it collects user data to ensure dedicated security and filters spam to provide a better user experience. However, mostly the data is used for targeting the ads as per the individual’s preference. The information that Facebook gains from the Facebook App, Instagram and other of its family of apps is used to know what a particular user prefers so that company can show ads accordingly. Since WhatsApp has the highest number of users among all of Facebook’s acquisitions, the data extraction would be much more from WhatsApp than other apps.

Besides the Ad targetting, this move has further deepened the chance of integrating Facebook family apps. Mark Zuckerberg 2019 has talked about the integration of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp for ‘interoperability.’ A couple of months back, Instagram messages and Facebook Messenger have already been integrated, so, in the future, maybe the same thing can happen with WhatsApp too.

With the change in the Privacy policy, WhatsApp has confirmed that it has agreed to Facebook’s way of working, which its original creators declined by leaving the company.

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What choice do users have?

Not much. If users want to continue with the WhatsApp messaging app, they have to agree to the new terms and conditions till February 8th. Or if they have issues with the new policy, they don’t have any choice other than permanently leaving the app.

If you decide to leave WhatsApp because of privacy concerns, you might try the following privacy-focused messaging apps.

1. Signal Private Messenger

The Signal is a privacy-focussed messaging app, which has gained sudden popularity after the recent changes in WhatsApp. However, it already has millions of users because of its reputation as the most secure messaging app. Like WhatsApp, it also uses end-to-end encryption for messages and calls, but unlike WhatsApp, it does not collect user data. For more security, users have the ability to choose different disappearing message intervals for each conversation that they have saved in their chat history. Since it’s an open-source project, there is no advertising or secret tracking.

2. Wire

Wire is another messaging app that follows the end-to-end encryption model to ensure the privacy of its users and guard the messages, images, videos, and other documents being exchanged. Like Signal, it is also an entirely open-source program that depends on donations to run. It doesn’t collect any data and share the usage analytics with third parties. Since it’s open-source, the codes are available on GitHub for inspection and improvements.

3. Telegram

Another great alternative to WhatsApp is Telegram. It is a popular messaging app that provides a lot of privacy-focused options. It also comes with end-to-end encryption for securing the chats. You have an option to automatically destruct the sent messages, photos, videos, and other files. From the advanced settings, users can also enable secret chat options.

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Bottom Line

Since its inception in the year 2009, WhatsApp has always been the first choice for internet messaging across all platforms. The reason for that is its minimalistic design and straightforward UI. The problem started after Facebook acquired it in 2014. Since Facebook is a data-hungry company, the latest reforms were bound to happen. It is because of such working methods of Facebook organization, that the founders of WhatsApp left the company in 2018 .

My opinion is that WhatsApp was already sharing the data with Facebook; it is just they have now added it to their policy and made it official. As it is said, privacy in the current scenario is just a myth; still, we must do whatever it takes to reduce our personal data exposure, especially the financial ones. Leaving WhatsApp messenger might be the first step to that.

Why is WhatsApp changing its privacy policy?

According to WhatsApp, the privacy policy is being changed to enhance user experience on WhatsApp and other Facebook organization apps. However, it is actually done to collect users’ data for refined ad targeting.

Is WhatsApp really secure and private?

WhatsApp says that privacy and security are in its DNA, and with end-to-end encryption, they are bound to do that. However, after the acquisition by Facebook and with the recent changes in their privacy policy, it is hard to say that WhatsApp is a privacy-focused messaging app. It is clear that users’ data is being collected and shared for targeted ads.

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