Anyone using WhatsApp has received a notification from the app this week revealing news about the updated WhatsApp privacy policy. The popular messaging app has informed its users that this update will take effect on 8th February 2021. Looks like there’s no way out and if anyone doesn’t agree with the new terms and conditions they can simply opt out before they risk losing access to their chats and the entire account as a whole.
What does the WhatsApp privacy policy mean?
An update usually means you should expect a few changes here and there as we all know. So what do we expect from this new policy that WhatsApp plans to implement? Expect changes in how user data will be managed by the platform.
By accepting the update, this means that you grant WhatsApp more access to any data that is linked to you or your account and that this data will be shared with Facebook and other Facebook Company Products like Instagram and Messenger.
Also read: Panic sets in as many worry WhatsApp will not be working on their phones.
What kind of information will WhatsApp be able to access and share on Facebook?
It will collect information on messaging, calling, status, groups including group names and group descriptions, business features, profile photo, and your last seen among others.
The popular app has also increased access to hardware details like battery level of your device, signal strength, app version, connection information associated with the same device or account.
WhatsApp insists however that the new WhatsApp privacy policy is only happening to enable seamless integration across the Facebook Company Products and that it’s nothing outside its usual updates.
The notification from the Facebook-owned app is causing quite a stir on the internet as people raised concerns over the new privacy policy and what this could mean when it comes to prioritizing the security of their information.
Concerns over how the app handles users’ data grow every day ever since it was acquired by Facebook in 2014 and it seems this time the app cares very little about people’s worries as it even set an ultimatum for its over 2 billion users. If anyone still wants to use the app then they should agree before the 8th of next month.
Read also: Internet shutdown in Uganda ahead of UG elections as users suffer to download apps.
Here are some alternatives.
To prevent WhatsApp from accessing your user data, you can simply delete your account by following these easy steps. Go to Settings> Account> Delete my account. This will automatically erase your account and any data linked to your account.
By now we’re all familiar with Telegram. True it serves the same purpose as WhatsApp in every way from sharing messages to making calls to recording voice notes. What makes it unique is unlike the WhatsApp privacy policy it does not use any data that’s linked to its users which makes it more trustworthy.
Signal is also another messaging app that you can download. Just like Telegram it in no way uses data linked to its users. Signal seems to be taking advantage of this situation as the app shared on Twitter how users can even transfer chats from other messaging apps to Signal.