WhatsApp is to start handing over user information to parent company Facebook , in a huge reversal of its previous policies. In what could be described as its biggest privacy policy change, world's most popular instant messaging service, WhatsApp will now share user data including your contact list with its parent company, Facebook.
"By coordinating more with Facebook, we'll be able to do things like track basic metrics about how often people use our services and better fight spam on WhatsApp. And by connecting your phone number with Facebook's systems, Facebook can offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads if you have an account with them." WhatsApp said in a blog post.
The policy change is in sharp contrast with the earlier stands on privacy of user data, despite WhatsApp being an ad-free service.
Even while many have expressed concerns over the privacy of the user data, experts say the text and multimedia content sent through WhatsApp will still remain secure and Facebook won't be able to access them.
This is because of the end-to-end encryption used by WhatsApp which makes any data sent through it accessible only to the sender and receiver.
How to stop WhatsApp from sharing your information with Facebook
WhatsApp says that it has started gradually informing users of the updated privacy policies through its app. Existing users will receive a notification about the updated policies, but before clicking on the Agree button, tap on the ‘Read more…..’ button. This will open the entire contents of the policies, but at the bottom of the screen you will see a short message alongside a check mark. This message reads, “Share my WhatsApp account information with Facebook to improve my Facebook ads and product experiences. Your chats and phone number will not be shared onto Facebook regardless of the setting.” Uncheck the box, and hit then hit the Agree button.
In case you missed the message, and accidentally hit Agree without changing the setting, there is still an alternate way. On WhatsApp, head over to Settings -> Account -> Share my account info. Uncheck the box and you are done. Once you have agreed to WhatsApp’s updated privacy policies, a user will only have 30 days to change the setting if they wish to.
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