WhatsApp tries again to explain its privacy policy to users

WhatsApp has a new plan to explain its controversial privacy policy – one that was criticized when users feared the platform would share their messages with parent company Facebook. In an announcement Thursday, the company explained how users can read the new policy and learn how business and personal messages – which have different privacy standards – are handled.

The new privacy policy primarily concerns messaging companies on WhatsApp and the parts of your data to which those companies have access. Most WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, which means they can only be accessed by people who are actually talking. But WhatsApp also allows users to send messages to businesses, and those messages don’t have the same protections. The data contained in commercial messages can be used for commercial purposes such as targeting advertising on Facebook, and some of it is also stored on Facebook’s servers. WhatsApp’s privacy policy was an attempt to explain this change, but many users interpreted it as WhatsApp including the privacy goal it was known for.

Image: WhatsApp

Ahead of the relaunch on May 15 (moved from February 8), WhatsApp plans to offer users the option to view this new privacy policy in its app. The company has previously tried to reassure users through WhatsApp’s Status feature, but WhatsApp will now include a banner that can be tapped to display the explanation of the new policy. The company says it will eventually remind users to read the new policy and agree to continue using the app as well.

WhatsApp also notes that companies pay for the right to use WhatsApp to reach customers, and this is one of the ways that WhatsApp is able to provide its app for free. The main features of WhatsApp remain more private than ever. Of course, it’s not as private as some users might think: WhatsApp started sharing personal information like phone numbers and profile photos with Facebook in 2016 to improve friend recommendations and ads. on the app.

WhatsApp’s tone in this overhaul of its policy change is somewhat apologetic. It didn’t explain what was changing to users well enough, and it does. But WhatsApp has also managed to squeeze in other companies that have hailed the politically-driven WhatsApp exodus:

Meanwhile, we understand that some people may check out other apps to see what they have to offer. We’ve seen some of our competition try to get away with claiming they can’t see people’s messages – if an app doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption by default, that means they can read your messages. Other apps say they are better because they know even less information than WhatsApp. We believe people are looking for apps that are both reliable and secure, even if it requires WhatsApp to have limited data. We strive to be reflective about the decisions we make and will continue to develop new ways of fulfilling these responsibilities with less information, not more.

WhatsApp obliquely refers to Telegram, an application which, together with Signal, seemed to benefit confusion over what was changing in WhatsApp. Telegram has faced its own criticism of not enabling end-to-end encryption by default – and clearly, WhatsApp doesn’t want you to forget it.