WhatsApp users began to receive a notification with the changes to the terms of service and security policies. This announcement generated multiple criticisms on social networks and also serious questions about the amount of data that the application collects.
In less than three weeks, millions of users began their change to new messaging alternatives as negative to the changes in policies of the WhatsApp company, the app acquired by Facebook in 2016, which reached more than two billion users in the world. Given this, the social media giant decided to give people more time to understand the changes. This has been the controversial path so far.
WhatsApp received its users in this new year with a pop-up message in which it notified them that all the information that they store now will also be available to the companies that belong to the giant Facebook, which in this case are the social networks Facebook and Instagram.
But what exactly does WhatsApp collect? The company collects information on the user’s activity within the application, this means how they interact with contacts, including companies or businesses, the time, look at the frequency and duration of those interactions.
“This also includes information about when you signed up to use our services; the functions you use, such as messaging, calls, status, groups (including group name, group photo, group description); payments or commercial functions, profile picture, information ‘about’, if you are online, when you last used the services ”, says WhatsApp.
Likewise, the application also accesses information about the device on which the application is used; This means your model, your operating system, battery level, signal strength, what is the version of the application you have, the telephone operator, data of the browser you use, connection information, the telephone number, the IP address, language and time zone.
The computer security expert and director of Adalid, Axel Díaz, said: “ One of the main reflections left by this type of adjustments is the importance of reading the terms and conditions, because for a long time The application has been collecting this data for a while. The person is the one who decides if they want to use the service, which is definitely not free, because they pay with their information ”.
With these changes, according to WhatsApp, what they seek is “to operate, provide, improve, understand, personalize, support and commercialize” the services they offer in the business environment. However, this announcement was not well received by millions of users who began to question the collection of their data and the importance of privacy.
The trend around the world was to look for alternatives in instant messaging applications that could replace WhatsApp. This mobilization was evidenced in an increase in the users of Telegram, Signal and other available applications.
In fact, the week of January 13, Telegram reported a growth of 25 million users in 72 hours and noted that it had exceeded 500 million users. “People no longer exchange their privacy for free services. They no longer want to be taken hostage by technology monopolies, ” said Pavel Dúrov, co-founder of Telegram at the time.
Given this, WhatsApp started a pedagogical campaign on updating privacy policies in which it told netizens that the data they would share with Facebook would only be those of its Business section and that both the messages and data and information would be safe.
The main action of Mark Zuckerberg’s messaging application was to move the update date from February 8 to May 15 so that users had more time to inform themselves and make a decision.
“We are moving the date when people will be asked to review and agree to the terms. No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8. We are also going to do a lot more to clear up misinformation about how the privacy and security in WhatsApp, ” said the company that is part of the Facebook conglomerate.
For now, those who have already accepted the update will not be able to go back, but those who have not will be able to make an informed decision based on the changes and their own needs.
