WhatsApp still requires new privacy conditions with mandatory data sharing – IT Pro – News

WhatsApp is asking international users to agree to new privacy and terms of use in order to continue using the service. In addition, it is mandatory to share certain data with Facebook. Nothing will change for European users.

In a blog post WhatsApp writes that the company will again require new privacy conditions. Users must again agree to the terms that change how WhatsApp shares data with Facebook to better facilitate shopping and business communication in WhatsApp. However, the company will explain better what privacy update means, because according to WhatsApp a lot of ‘misinformation’ has been spread about it.

In early January, WhatsApp announced that users had to agree on February 8 with new privacy conditions. It was central how WhatsApp shares data with Facebook. The conditions include how WhatsApp stores and uses transaction data for payment services, such as Facebook Pay in WhatsApp. And how data shared in conversations with companies on WhatsApp can end up with Facebook, if companies use a link from WhatsApp for Business with other Facebook services. The conditions were shared via a pop-up, if users did not agree, they would no longer be able to use WhatsApp after February 8.

The new conditions met with considerable criticism, because WhatsApp seemed to take away the choice among users outside the EU that WhatsApp would not share data with parent company Facebook. Within the EU, Facebook is not allowed to use data from European WhatsApp users, so that almost nothing changed for European users to the terms of use, although they also had to agree to the conditions. WhatsApp decided on the new terms postpone because of the criticism, what the company called ‘confusion and misinformation’.

Users must now agree to the new terms again. That will not be via a popup again. “We thought hard about how we could have done this better,” says WhatsApp. That is why it will share WhatsApps ‘values ​​and updates’ via the Status function, the company will do its best to make its ‘voice heard’ and users will see a banner in WhatsApp in the coming weeks with more information about the update, which they can read ‘at their own pace’. It also emphasizes that chatting with a business or shopping in the app are completely optional.

In the blog post, WhatsApp finally lashes out at competitor Telegram, which recently saw a huge influx of users because of the criticism of WhatsApp’s privacy update. WhatsApp writes, “We’ve seen some of our competitors claim that they can’t see people’s messages. But if an app doesn’t provide end-to-end encryption, by default it means they can read your messages. Other apps say they can. better because they have less access to information than WhatsApp. We believe people are looking for apps that are reliable and secure, even if it means WhatsApp has access to a limited amount of data. ” With Telegram, messages are not end-to-end encrypted by default. At Signal, that also saw a doubling of the number of users, this is the case.

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