Article written by Haim Ravia, Dotan Hammer and Adi Shoval
WhatsApp announced an update to its privacy policy which highlights its sharing of user’s information with Facebook. According to WhatsApp’s original plans, the policy was due to take effect on February 8, 2021.
WhatsApp was purchased by Facebook back in 2014. Within two years, the companies openly declared their intention to share personal information about users. Due to the public outcry at the time, for a brief period, WhatsApp had allowed users to opt-out of the sharing of their information with the Facebook group of companies.
According to recent media reports following the announcement of its new privacy policy, WhatsApp now stresses that the update does not bring about a material change because WhatsApp has been sharing information with Facebook for a long time for most of its users around the world.
WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy allows it to transfer to Facebook information about users’ contacts and other user data (but not the content of users’ messages, which is protected by end-to-end encryption). Facebook could use this information, among others, for targeted advertising purposes and for comprising comprehensive user profiles.
The announcement privacy policy update sparked a major backlash, also evident in the increased downloads of competing apps such as Telegram and Signal. Taken aback by the major public scrutiny, WhatsApp announced that it will postpone the update to its privacy policy until May 2021.
CLICK HERE to read Pearl Cohen’s Client Alert on WhatsApp’s privacy policy update.
