WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messenger that claims to have privacy coded into its DNA, is giving it’s 2 billion-plus users an ultimatum: agree to share their personal data with the social network or delete their accounts.
The requirement is being delivered through an in-app alert directing users to agree to sweep changes in the WhatsApp terms of service. Those who don’t accept the revamped privacy policy by February 8 will no longer be able to use the app.
In 2016, WhatsApp gave users a one-time ability to opt-out of having account data turned over to Facebook. Now, an updated privacy policy is changing that. Come next month, users will no longer have that choice. Some of the data that WhatsApp collects includes:
- User phone numbers
- Other people’s phone numbers stored in address books
- Profile names
- Profile pictures and
- A status message including when a user was last online
- Diagnostic data collected from app logs
A lack of transparency
The move comes a month after Apple started requiring iOS app makers, including WhatsApp, to detail the information they collect from users. WhatsApp, according to the App Store, reserves the right to collect:
- Purchases
- Financial information
- Location
- Contacts
- User content
- Identifiers
- Usage data and
- Diagnostics
A WhatsApp spokeswoman declined to speak on the record about the changes and precisely how or if it’s possible for users to opt out of them. She agreed to email additional information on the condition it be kept on background, meaning none of the details can be quoted verbatim.
The move, the spokeswoman said, is part of a previously disclosed move to allow businesses to store and manage WhatsApp chats using Facebook’s infrastructure. Users won’t have to use WhatsApp to interact with the businesses and have the option of blocking the businesses. She said there will be no change in how WhatsApp shares provide data with Facebook for non-business chats and account data.
Together, the WhatsApp privacy policy and terms of service are more than 8,000 words long and are filled with legal jargon that makes it difficult for non-lawyers to understand. WhatsApp is doing its users a disservice by not agreeing to speak on the record so that reporters can fully understand the changes and explain them to readers.
People who object to the new terms and policy should consider using a different messenger. The Signal messenger provides the same robust encryption engine with a much more transparent privacy policy and terms of service. (Those documents are half the length of those from WhatsApp, too.) Besides providing encrypted chats, Signal also offers encrypted audio and video calls.