WhatsApp privacy disaster under scrutiny — here's what you need to know

(Image credit: Anadolu Bureau / Getty Images)

WhatsApp's not been having a adept few weeks, and it looks like things won't be going back to normal anytime soon. Its latest crunch comes from the U.K. data protection regulator telling WhatsApp it should not manus over user information to parent company Facebook.

WhatsApp has insisted its controversial new privacy policy doesn't alter anything, but that hasn't stopped people from fleeing to rival services. And at present information technology's got to the point where world governments are starting to take notice.

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WhatsApp has said that the new terms and weather only apply to data collected when users interact with businesses, while everything else is staying exactly the same. That alter, according to WhatsApp, volition only take identify outside of the Eu and U.K., as those regions accept much more stringent data protection rules than the U.Due south. and the balance of the world.

Co-ordinate to Elizabeth Denham, the U.K.'s data commissioner (via The Guardian), WhatsApp already committed to non sharing user information with Facebook until information technology could evidence possible nether GDPR regulations. Those rules withal use, despite the fact the U.K. has left the Eu, which is why WhatsApp promised nothing was changing to the manner it handled user data from the country.

Merely now the responsibility falls on her to ensure WhatsApp doesn't interruption those rules, and Denham'southward told WhatsApp to say as much.

While this is skillful news for Brits, since it means WhatsApp has legal obligations to non share their data with Facebook, information technology's not and so skillful for anybody else. Speaking to a parliamentary committee, Denham pointed out that the specifics don't matter every bit much as the fact that WhatsApp decided to "suddenly alter the contract that they accept with the users" which has led to business organization over the " trustworthiness and the sustainability of the promises made to users".

In this instance that promise is that WhatsApp would not be sharing user information with Facebook. That hope was made when the service was bought out in 2014, and swiftly broken in 2016. Users could opt out at the fourth dimension, but reports that the latest privacy policy change was mandatory got a lot of people riled up.

The U.K. isn't the only government concerned well-nigh WhatsApp changing privacy policy either, since the Indian authorities has already asked the service to withdraw its privacy policy changes.

It feels like information technology'south now merely a matter of time until other governments, including the U.S., beginning request questions about the human relationship between WhatsApp and Facebook too. Peculiarly considering the country is missing many of the aforementioned laws and agreements that are supposed to keep European WhatsApp data away from Facebook.

While the new privacy policy now won't exist coming into force until May, a lot of what you lot may have read online likely isn't truthful. It doesn't hateful Facebook volition have access to private WhatsApp messages, nor can they access contact lists or other bits of personal information. As for data that is shared, WhatsApp insists that nothing has changed, only that it's beingness more transparent about it.

Of course if that's not enough to reassure y'all, yous can always jump send and join 1 of the all-time WhatsApp alternatives. Just brand sure to bring over as many of your contacts as you tin, otherwise the whole endeavor is pretty moot.

Tom is the Tom's Guide's Automotive Editor, which ways he can unremarkably exist institute knee deep in stats the latest and best electric cars, or checking out some sort of driving gadget. It's long way from his days every bit editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He's usually found trying to squeeze some other giant Lego ready onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or lament that Ikea won't let him buy the stuff he really needs online.