New WhatsApp terms ... What will you do with user data and privacy after February 8?
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New WhatsApp terms
The announcement of the application of the instant messaging platform "WhatsApp" new rules - and forcing users to agree to them - to a state of anxiety among the people who depend on them to communicate with friends and family.
WhatsApp has always been proud of its commitment to security and privacy, through encrypted conversations and other important technologies built into the application, but the new announcement raised completely opposite concerns, as user data will be shared with "Facebook".
But what is the reality of the changes, and how much should I be concerned about them?
It started with the company announcing the new terms, as it asked users, in the past two days, to agree to them - at the moment they can choose to leave them until later, but in the end they will not be able to continue using the application unless they agree to the new rules, according to a newspaper report, The Independent.
These new rules include a summary of how information is shared with Facebook and how any shared information can be used. The new privacy policy states that it is “as part of a family of companies Facebook, WhatsApp receives information from this group, and shares the information with it. "
The summary also states: “We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information that we share with them, to help operate our services and offerings, provide, improve, understand, customize, support and market our services and offerings.”
It was this summary that led to fears and concerns that people's WhatsApp data might not be protected. Users must accept the new terms by February 8th to avoid crashing their accounts.
The most important thing to note is that the information that WhatsApp collects is not conversations. It is encrypted and therefore the company cannot see it even if it wanted to.
Apart from that, the information that will be collected and shared is personal data such as users' phone number, their contacts, profile names, photos and diagnostic data.
Therefore, there is no concern - at least not yet - that private app conversations will be harvested for use in advertisements or other purposes by Facebook.
Moreover, the company insists that European users will not see any changes in the use of their data, even if they agree to the conditions. WhatsApp spokesman said :" There are no changes to share data in the European region, after activating Updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. ”
The most important recent update is that WhatsApp has added new features to allow people to communicate with the companies that Facebook works with. When speaking to these contacts (companies), messages may be stored and managed by Facebook. Therefore, these conversations can be shared with the company generally.
But it is important to know that users must be informed if this happens, that is, when speaking to a company that decided to manage its messages with Facebook, A message should appear explaining this - so that users can stop talking to her if they prefer not to share this information.
False claims
With the announcement of the new rules, many rumors have spread on social media platforms about users' privacy, and in the next few lines, respond to them accordingly. On the policy and public statements of the company, according to a report by the "Indian Express" website.
The application will not share private messages with Facebook and will continue to adhere to the "end-to-end" encryption policy, which does not allow any third party to read chats, and the company undertakes to delete messages from its servers as soon as they are delivered (while keeping them on the user's personal device).
As for sharing the user's location from Facebook. It is wrong , too, and it is true that will share the site approximate only, information that is provided through the phone number and address of the " IBM "user's, but will not transfer the location information that is shared by users with each other.
Nor will possess "WhatsApp"tThe contents and media files that are shared through the platform, they are also subject to the encryption policy approved by the company, as they are only temporarily stored until they are passed to the recipient.
It is also important to know that the application does not plan to show any ads at the moment to its users, and it will not track calls or Recording them, whether audible or visual, and storing the backup copy of messages is at the choice of the user and through a third party such as Google Drive or "Apple iCloud".
WhatsApp has always been proud of its commitment to security and privacy, through encrypted conversations and other important technologies built into the application, but the new announcement raised completely opposite concerns, as user data will be shared with "Facebook".
But what is the reality of the changes, and how much should I be concerned about them?
It started with the company announcing the new terms, as it asked users, in the past two days, to agree to them - at the moment they can choose to leave them until later, but in the end they will not be able to continue using the application unless they agree to the new rules, according to a newspaper report, The Independent.
These new rules include a summary of how information is shared with Facebook and how any shared information can be used. The new privacy policy states that it is “as part of a family of companies Facebook, WhatsApp receives information from this group, and shares the information with it. "
The summary also states: “We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information that we share with them, to help operate our services and offerings, provide, improve, understand, customize, support and market our services and offerings.”
It was this summary that led to fears and concerns that people's WhatsApp data might not be protected. Users must accept the new terms by February 8th to avoid crashing their accounts.
The most important thing to note is that the information that WhatsApp collects is not conversations. It is encrypted and therefore the company cannot see it even if it wanted to.
Apart from that, the information that will be collected and shared is personal data such as users' phone number, their contacts, profile names, photos and diagnostic data.
Therefore, there is no concern - at least not yet - that private app conversations will be harvested for use in advertisements or other purposes by Facebook.
Moreover, the company insists that European users will not see any changes in the use of their data, even if they agree to the conditions. WhatsApp spokesman said :" There are no changes to share data in the European region, after activating Updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. ”
The most important recent update is that WhatsApp has added new features to allow people to communicate with the companies that Facebook works with. When speaking to these contacts (companies), messages may be stored and managed by Facebook. Therefore, these conversations can be shared with the company generally.
But it is important to know that users must be informed if this happens, that is, when speaking to a company that decided to manage its messages with Facebook, A message should appear explaining this - so that users can stop talking to her if they prefer not to share this information.
False claims
With the announcement of the new rules, many rumors have spread on social media platforms about users' privacy, and in the next few lines, respond to them accordingly. On the policy and public statements of the company, according to a report by the "Indian Express" website.
The application will not share private messages with Facebook and will continue to adhere to the "end-to-end" encryption policy, which does not allow any third party to read chats, and the company undertakes to delete messages from its servers as soon as they are delivered (while keeping them on the user's personal device).
As for sharing the user's location from Facebook. It is wrong , too, and it is true that will share the site approximate only, information that is provided through the phone number and address of the " IBM "user's, but will not transfer the location information that is shared by users with each other.
Nor will possess "WhatsApp"tThe contents and media files that are shared through the platform, they are also subject to the encryption policy approved by the company, as they are only temporarily stored until they are passed to the recipient.
It is also important to know that the application does not plan to show any ads at the moment to its users, and it will not track calls or Recording them, whether audible or visual, and storing the backup copy of messages is at the choice of the user and through a third party such as Google Drive or "Apple iCloud".
