WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy has been taken in a different angle by many users that it led to mass misunderstanding that the company will now gain access to the users’ calls, private chats and introduce ads in between chats etc.
In an official statement, WhatsApp said on Tuesday “We recently updated our Privacy Policy, and we have received many thoughtful questions. With some of the rumours going around, we want to answer some of the common questions we have received. We go to great lengths to build WhatsApp in a way that helps people communicate privately. We want to be clear that the policy update does not affect the privacy of your messages with friends or family in any way. Instead, this update includes changes related to messaging a business on WhatsApp, which is optional, and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data.”
On Tuesday, WhatsApp tweeted from its official account that it cannot see your private messages or hear your calls and neither can Facebook.
WhatsApp does not keep logs of who everyone is messaging or calling, it cannot see users’ shared location and neither can Facebook. It does not keep share a user’s contact with Facebook, and the WhatsApp group remain private.
The notification about the updated policy was sent to users recently and it lead to rumours. The speed at which all these speculations travelled made many people to migrate to other apps such as Telegram and Signal.