Security News
WhatsApp said on Friday that it wouldn't enforce its recently announced controversial data sharing policy update until May 15. The Facebook-owned company has since repeatedly clarified that the update does not expand its ability to share personal user chats or other profile information with Facebook and is instead simply providing further transparency about how user data is collected and shared when using the messaging app to interact with businesses.
WhatsApp on Tuesday reassured users about privacy at the Facebook-owned messaging service as people flocked to rivals Telegram and Signal following a tweak to its terms. WhatsApp's new terms sparked criticism, as users outside Europe who do not accept the new conditions before February 8 will be cut off from the messaging app.
The updated privacy policies, it argued, are instead related to the data collection of WhatsApp users who message businesses on the platform. According to WhatsApp, the policy update changes began rolling out in December.
If you’re a WhatsApp user, pay attention to the changes in the privacy policy that you’re being forced to agree with. In 2016, WhatsApp gave users a one-time ability to opt out of having account...
Signal's encrypted messaging service has recovered from delays affecting its new user verification process after a mass exodus of WhatsApp users to their platform. When setting up Signal for the first time, users must verify their mobile number using verification codes sent by the encrypted messaging provider.
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.
This information disclosed to the Facebook Companies already adds up to a fair bit of data, includes users' account registration information, such as phone number; transaction data; service-related information; data on how users interact with others, including businesses; mobile device information,; IP address; as well as other info identified as information users have given the service consent to collect, according to WhatsApp. The expansion in data sharing between the two platforms will now ask users to provide payment account and transaction information to WhatsApp, according to one report.
Despite its focus on users' privacy, WhatsApp is now giving its users a harsh ultimatum, with only three options available: to accept sharing their data with Facebook, to stop using the app altogether, or to delete their accounts. With the new changes to the policy, users will now be forced to accept sharing their data with Facebook to continue using their account or, as an alternative, delete their accounts as WhatsApp says.
Facebook subsidiary WhatsApp has received new high-caliber support in its case against Israeli intelligence company NSO Group. The court case aims to hold NSO Group accountable for distributing its Pegasus spyware on the popular WhatsApp messaging service with the intent of planting its spyware on phones of journalists and human rights workers.
Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub, Google, LinkedIn, VMware and the Internet Association have filed an amicus brief in support of WhatsApp in the legal case against the NSO Group. Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp filed the lawsuit in October 2019 in California, accusing Israeli technology firm NSO Group of spying on journalists, human rights activists and others.