Should we be worried about WhatsApp’s new privacy policy?

Is it possible for an in instant messenger privacy policy update to interest anyone? It turns out that yes, and very much so. WhatsApp has decided to change its privacy policy. The result? Thousands of articles in the media, panic and fear among users, scared about their data being leaked or shared with Facebook, a sudden spike in the number of users of the rival messenger Signal and an increase in the stock market shares of the company producing electronic equipment by more than 11%. Sounds interesting? Even more interesting is the question of whether there is anything to be afraid of at all.

Since a few days, WhatsApp has started to send users a reminder about updating its privacy policy and clarifying how it can share users’ data with Facebook. Panic has erupted on the Web and hundreds of conspiracy theories have sprung up claiming that WhatsApp will now censor the messages, promote vaccination, and that Mark Zuckerberg himself will personally read our messages.

Therefore, it’s worth noting: we are not aware of any censorship of messages on WhatsApp, and given that WhatsApp encrypts messages using end-to-end encryption, such censorship is technically impossible. Mark Zuckerberg is unlikely to be interested in his users’ messages, and even if he were, he is unable to read them because of the encryption.

What many panicking people seem to forget is that WhatsApp has been owned by Facebook since 2014 and shares user metadata with its mother company, which incidentally caused protests from the German government. However, the privacy update itself doesn’t change anything in terms of sending data to Facebook. WhatsApp has been sending your data there for a long time and will continue to do so.

Despite this, there have been plenty of critical posts and articles on the Internet. Elon Musk commented on the situation, encouraging people to use WhatsApp’s competitor, Signal messenger. The result was an increase in the stock market of Signal Advance, a company that produces electronic equipment by more than 11%. It has nothing to do with the Signal messenger, which is not listed on the stock exchange. Probably the investors have not even checked what company they are investing in.

Are they spying or not?

The truth is that if you use a smartphone with a Google account, have a Facebook or Instagram account, you really don’t have any chance of maintaining your online privacy. All these companies know more about you than you know about yourself. Here is an example of the data WhatsApp collects about you:

• Approximate location
• Phone number
• User and device ID
• Application usage information
• Marketing information
• Diagnostic information
• Contacts

Sound creepy? Here’s a list of the data Facebook Messenger collects about you:

• Purchase history
• “Other financial data”
• Approximate location
• Exact location
• Residence address
• E-mail address
• First and last name
• Telephone number
• “Other contact information”
• Contacts
• Images and videos
• Search history
• Browsing history
• User ID
• Device ID
• App usage information
• Marketing information
• Diagnostic Information
• Health Information
• “Sensitive information”

Additionally, unlike WhatsApp, Facebook does not encrypt messages. This means that Facebook administrators can theoretically read them, and if Facebook servers are hacked, all of our conversations could fall prey to hackers. So WhatsApp data shouldn’t be much of an issue in terms of privacy, since Facebook Messenger collects much more of it.

Of course, Facebook does not collect this data without a purpose – it is used for marketing profiling and, consequently for tailoring ads to users. So if someone often searches the Internet for information about diet, they may be shown ads for dieticians or box catering. On the other hand, if a person uses a heart rate monitor connected to the phone and Messenger detects irregularities, they might see ads for cardiologists or medical devices. When we are in Cracow and Messenger detects that we haven’t been to any restaurants in a long time, we can expect to see ads for eateries in the area, even if we don’t search for restaurants in Kraków. As an advertiser, you can take advantage of this to show your ads to potential customers by, for example, having an online marketing campaign set up.

What instead of WhatsApp?

If you definitely do not want to be spied on in any way, you should check out Signal messenger. It encrypts all conversations using end-to-end encryption, and unlike WhatsApp, it doesn’t store any metadata. So Signal’s administrators don’t know who is using it and who their users are talking to. Signal does not collect any data about its users, so it is not able to provide it to anyone even if requested by law enforcement agencies.

As a conclusion: if you don’t care about seeing profiled ads, use any messenger you want. If, however, you don’t want Facebook to know more about you than you tell it yourself, we recommend switching to Signal. If you also use the offer of encrypted e-mail on Swiss servers, you can be sure that no one will read your correspondence. Provided, of course, that your phone does not have tracking software installed.