WhatsApp’s updated terms of service and privacy policy gives more insight into how the messaging platform will use user data and, more importantly, share it with its parent company Facebook going forward. Users have till February 8, 2021 to accept these in order to continue using the platform.

WhatsApp is updating its terms of service and privacy policy on February 8, 2021.

Users who do not agree to the new policies will not be able to use the app.

The new policies include information about how WhatsApp manages user data and how it shares information with Facebook companies.

WhatsApp explains that when a user relies on this, information such as IP address and the fact that you are a WhatsApp user, may be provided to the third-party in question or to another Facebook company product.

“When a user forwards media within a message, we store that media temporarily in encrypted form on our servers to aid in more efficient delivery of additional forwards,” WhatsApp said on its site.

You can’t stop WhatsApp sharing info with Facebook

WhatsApp currently shares certain categories of information with Facebook Companies.

“We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings, including the Facebook Company Products,” says WhatsApp.

“The information we share with the other Facebook Companies includes your account registration information (such as your phone number), transaction data, service-related information, information on how you interact with others (including businesses) when using our Services, mobile device information, your IP address, and may include other information identified in the Privacy Policy section entitled ‘Information We Collect’ or obtained upon notice to you or based on your consent,” it adds.

WhatsApp has also said that it stores undelivered messages for a period of 30 days, and if the message is still undelivered, it gets deleted from its servers. “If a message cannot be delivered immediately, we keep it in encrypted form on our servers for up to 30 days as we try to deliver it. If a message is still undelivered after 30 days, we delete it.”

Given WhatsApp has rolled out payments in India and other countries, it is not surprising to see this part of the privacy policy getting expanded further. WhatsApp says that if you use their payments services they will “process additional information about you, including payment account and transaction information.” However, WhatsApp Payments in India has its own dedicated privacy policy.

If you don’t want to allow Facebook to do this, your only alternative is to switch to another messaging service such as Telegram or A good old-fashioned phone call!

Originally published at https://www.biovolttech.org on January 8, 2021.