WhatsApp, the online messaging app, has recently revamped its privacy policy and term of services. The updated policies claimed that the app will share data with Facebook and that’s mandatory.

The company has also issued an official statement stating that data-sharing practices with parent company Facebook is not going to change. Also do note that the new changes will start effecting from February and the data-sharing policies will be implemented on WhatsApp and Facebook business accounts.

The company clarified that nothing will change when it comes to consumer chats and it would be end-to-end encrypted, reported mysmartprice.com. 

The new policy will be implemented from February 8th, 2021 for all Android and iPhone users. The company also suggests that all the users will receive a pop-up notification letting them know about the changes made to the privacy policies. Notably, all the users have to agree with the terms and conditions to continue using the app.

“As we announced in October, WhatsApp wants to make it easier for people to both make a purchase and get help from a business directly on WhatsApp. While most people use WhatsApp to chat with friends and family, increasingly people are reaching out to businesses as well. To further increase transparency, we updated the privacy policy to describe that going forward businesses can choose to receive secure hosting services from our parent company Facebook to help manage their communications with their customers on WhatsApp. Though of course, it remains up to the user whether or not they want to message with a business on WhatsApp.

The update does not change WhatsApp’s data-sharing practices with Facebook and does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family wherever they are in the world. WhatsApp remains deeply committed to protecting people’s privacy. We are communicating directly with users through WhatsApp about these changes so they have time to review the new policy over the course of the next month,” WhatsApp told The Verge in a statement. 

https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1347240006444675072

WhatsApp comes up with all this clarification when Elon Musk tweeted to use the signal app. After Musk’s tweet a majority of users registered for the app, which event caused verification code delay across the entire servers.