WhatsApp has a new plan to explain its controversial privacy policy – one that was questioned when users began to worry about the possibility of the platform sharing their messages with the parent company Facebook. In an announcement on Thursday, the company explained how users can read the new policy and learn how business and personal messages – which have different privacy standards – are handled.
The new privacy policy concerns mainly the messaging companies on WhatsApp and what parts of their data these companies have access to. Most WhatsApp messages are encrypted from end to end, which means that they can only be accessed by people who are actually chatting. But WhatsApp also allows users to send messages to companies, and those messages don’t have the same protections. The data in business messages can be used for commercial purposes, such as targeting ads on Facebook, and some of it is also stored on Facebook servers. WhatsApp’s privacy policy was an attempt to explain this change, but many users interpreted it as WhatsApp encompassing the privacy focus for which it was known.
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Before the new May 15 release (changed from February 8), WhatsApp plans to offer users the ability to review this new privacy policy within its app. The company has already tried to reassure users through the WhatsApp Status feature, but now WhatsApp will include a banner that can be touched to show the explanation of the new policy. The company says it will eventually remind users to read the new policy and accept it to continue using the app as well.
WhatsApp also notes that companies pay for the right to use WhatsApp to reach customers, and this is one of the ways that WhatsApp can provide its app for free. The main features of WhatsApp remain as private as ever. Of course, it’s not as private as some users might think: WhatsApp started sharing some personal information like phone numbers and profile pictures with Facebook in 2016 to improve recommendations from friends and in-app ads.
The tone of WhatsApp in this redoing its policy change is somewhat apologetic. He did not explain what was changing well enough for users, and is assuming that. But WhatsApp also managed to sneak into other companies that hailed the policy-driven exodus of WhatsApp:
During that time, we understand that some people can check other apps to see what they have to offer. We saw some of our competitors trying to escape by claiming that they can’t see people’s messages – if an application doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption by default, it means that they can read your messages. Other apps say they are better because they know even less information than WhatsApp. We believe that people are looking for apps that are reliable and safe, even if it requires WhatsApp to have some limited data. We strive to be careful in the decisions we make and will continue to develop new ways to fulfill these responsibilities with less information, not more.
WhatsApp makes indirect reference to Telegram, an application that, along with Signal, seemed to benefit of confusion about what was changing on WhatsApp. Telegram dealt with its own criticisms about not enabling end-to-end encryption by default – and clearly, WhatsApp doesn’t want you to forget that.