New WhatsApp Privacy Policy : What is at stake? And should WhatsApp be laid to rest?
To understand the conundrum that was created by WhatsApp’s new privacy policy, it is important to realize that WhatsApp is broadly used to communicate either with a business or with a user’s personal interests that are not businesses.
The new privacy policies have made no changes whatsoever, in the way the messaging is done in the nature of a personal communication between friends and families, however there are notable changes in the way the communication with a business entity is handled in WhatsApp, what with the new privacy policy in place. The background to the whole idea behind such changes in that regard is to do with the decision of the parent company ‘Facebook’, to integrate its services across all its platforms (including WhatsApp).
WhatsApp in its new privacy policy has clarified that the personal messages that are sent to one another on a consumer basis shall remain end to end encrypted as usual and no such data would be shared with Facebook. It also clarified about the meta-data that it does have access to which includes, Battery strength, signal strength, ISP, mobile data which includes the phone model, transaction details (related to WhatsApp payment), etc. The purpose of collecting such information is to improve the customer experience over the use of the service provided by WhatsApp and these are also those informations which are available with any other social service platform.
However, when a user wishes to message a business, WhatsApp
will clearly inform that they are involving themselves in a conversation with a
business, in which case, it is possible that their communication with the
business be tracked or their information be made available with Facebook, in
order to promote better targeted advertisements in Facebook platforms or in the
“Family of Facebook Companies” as was quoted. The choice of such information
being shared is with both the user and the business. The user can simply opt
not to communicate with the business and the business can also choose not to
share it across Facebook. However for the purposes of better marketing in terms
of better targeted advertisements, it is highly probable that such information
would be made available to Facebook nonetheless by any reasonable business
entity wanting better sales.
Another important change that has been observed so far is that in all the previous privacy policy updates, there has been a statement with regard to the display of advertisements on WhatsApp and the company had always held that they would never resort to displaying of advertisements in the platform, but, this time around, it was stated that while the company still does not wish to make advertisements in WhatsApp, there are possibilities of revision in this regard in the future. Putting two and two together it seems pretty clear that WhatsApp as a company is getting influenced by its parent company to expand its services in the direction of business, and thus it seems that a change in the advertisement policies to incorporate targeted ads in WhatsApp may not come as a surprise in the future updates.
With a lot of rumor going on about WhatsApp sharing personal
data with Facebook, as a result of its new privacy policy and the co-founders
of WhatsApp Jan Koum and Brian Acton quitting from Facebook and WhatsApp, for
undisclosed reasons which seems to revolve around the poor privacy policies
adopted by Facebook, only further degrades the reliability and authenticity
that it once used to possess. Adding fuel to the fire, the setting up of new
alternative non profit messaging apps, such as ‘Signal’ App, created by Brian
Acton, which is a non profit messaging platform with the same functionality of
WhatsApp, but assured data protection, and no business interest whatsoever,
seems to have picked up a lot of support of the people and there is an
observable and significant move to such new platforms by the people. It was
even endorsed by Elon Musk, who supported freedom of privacy. Another such
messaging app which is now getting much popularity is ‘Telegram’.
Given everything that we are now aware about with regard to
the new privacy policy, it is important to look at how it can impact a
business. In general it is obvious that the advertisements are going to
improve, and business from the point of view of a seller is going to get better
across the Facebook platform. WhatsApp is a very strong communication platform
and it can be used effectively to promote businesses. It makes the business
dealings less informal thereby increasing the effectiveness of communications
between the business and the consumer and also between businesses. Numerous
examples can be drawn in this regard, like in comparison to a follow up mail,
which is always written in a formal manner, a WhatsApp message on the other
hand is more convenient, short and easy to post, thereby making it the “go to”
option in comparison to traditional mails. With the launch of WhatsApp Payment
option, invoices could be generated which could be easily sent via the same
platform thereby making the need of a separate mailing system obsolete, and
also, the business related reviews posted by the consumers could further
enhance the authenticity of the businesses established across WhatsApp.
It can thus be inferred that the new privacy policy is a
boon to the businesses that work through WhatsApp. But what of the consumer, or
the citizens of India in general who use WhatsApp? Where India lacks, is a
regulatory Act in this regard. Without a regulatory Act, there are no limits or
boundaries that are prescribed to the social media companies and the people are
left with the choice of either availing the service or forgoing their account
from WhatsApp if a decision is not made by 8th of February. It is trite that
WhatsApp is ubiquitous and it is available with a person who could be a child
to even an elderly person, and given the ease of pressing the ‘I Agree’ button,
it is certain that out of the billions of people that use WhatsApp, some might
not have wanted to agree with the new policies that are made. In such a
situation, the Government must step in and make enquiries into the matter and ascertain what is best
for its people.
In such matters, the European Union (EU) has a better
regulation in effect. The EU has what is called the General Data Protection
Regulation (GDRP) in place which ensures that their citizens have full rights
on their data and how that data is processed. What is most remarkable about
their policy with social media platforms including WhatsApp is that they can
demand the erasure of information. WhatsApp provides what is called “Managing
and Retaining Your Information” to its consumers with which they can rectify,
update or even delete their information. Such a functionality is not available
in other countries.
The important takeaway here is that there are always ways to
implement better protection of privacy in social media platforms, but it is the
responsiveness and vigilance of the Government which can help its citizens
obtain such grandeur in privacy protection. Rest assured, if it remains
sleeping on the importance of privacy and turns a blind eye to such matters
then sensitive information can be siphoned pretty easily in the forthcoming
future.
Written by :
Danny Louis David
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