Security News > 2021 > January > WhatsApp Will Disable Your Account If You Don't Agree Sharing Data With Facebook
The mandatory changes allow WhatsApp to share more user data with other Facebook companies, including account registration information, phone numbers, transaction data, service-related information, interactions on the platform, mobile device information, IP address, and other data collected based on users' consent.
In its updated policy, the company expands on the "Information You Provide" section with specifics about payment account and transaction information collected during purchases made via the app and has replaced the "Affiliated Companies" section with a new "How We Work With Other Facebook Companies" that goes into detail about how it uses and shares the information gathered from WhatsApp with other Facebook products or third-parties.
One section that's received a major rewrite is "Automatically Collected Information," which covers "Usage and log Information," "Device And Connection Information," and "Location Information."
WhatsApp's revised policy also spells out the kind of information it gathers from users' devices: hardware model, operating system information, battery level, signal strength, app version, browser information, mobile network, connection information, language and time zone, IP address, device operations information, and identifiers.
"Even if you do not use our location-related features, we use IP addresses and other information like phone number area codes to estimate your general location," WhatsApp updated policy reads.
"We must collect some information to provide a reliable global communications service," it said, adding "We minimize the categories of data that we collect" and "We take measures to restrict access to that information."