The initial date was for a switch to these new rules from February 8; but WhatsApp finally announced on Friday, January 15, that it was postponing their entry into force by three months . The service is thus seeking to reassure its users in the face of what it considers to be "disinformation" about how it processes their data.
Read also WhatsApp postpones its changes to its terms of use by three months
Today, most WhatsApp users already have some of the information overseas chinese in australia data they leave in the app processed by Facebook: part of WhatsApp's privacy policy explains precisely what data is shared with "Facebook entities" . For example, WhatsApp shares with its parent company information such as:
the pseudonym;
the phone number;
IP addresses;
data relating to its users' devices.
But some users were able, for a short period in 2016, to refuse to have such information shared with Facebook. For them, in countries outside the European Union (on the American, African and Asian continents, for example), the new terms of use of WhatsApp will make this sharing of data mandatory. If the user refuses these conditions, WhatsApp has indicated that his account will be deactivated.
For French people and people located in the European Union, protection by the General Data Protection Regulation (the famous GDPR) prevents this account deactivation in such a case.
The confusion caused by this update, and the questions from Internet users around the world, have nevertheless had an impact. For example, many people have chosen the Signal or Telegram applications to transfer their private chats. They have also triggered the launch of an investigation by the Italian authority responsible for the protection of personal data, in order to take stock of the information actually collected and processed by WhatsApp.
How to see what information WhatsApp has about you?
It is possible to view the data that WhatsApp has on you. To do this, go to the settings of the mobile application and in the "Account" submenu, make your request on the "Request account information" page. Once the request is validated, WhatsApp displays a provisional date on which the data can be downloaded.
