WhatsApp is keen to let you know its privacy policy for residents of Europe

Opening WhatsApp these days, you may find yourself faced with a warning like the one illustrated below: “In our Privacy Policy, we provide you with more information on how we use your data. Find out more”. In fact, WhatsApp wants users to be aware of what is contained in its (very long) Privacy Policy for Residents of Europewhich was last updated on November 22, 2021. It is not clear to us why the notice in question is therefore appearing recently: is it the prelude to a next, further update?

By clicking on the link proposed by WhatsApp you will be taken to this page, where, first of all, the service is keen to reiterate that personal conversations are all protected by end-to-end encryption, and always will beand therefore they cannot be read or heard.

In reality, however, this page does not say much else, referring “the most daring” to reading the entire privacy policy, which is much more substantial. His analysis would therefore be long and even beyond our reach, not knowing precisely how many and what quibbles there are, but we can still emphasize some passages that we consider important.

On the information collected

About the information collected, WhatsApp reassures about the confidentiality of messages, as we have already underlined; in addition, the state is also encrypted, and it is up to the user to decide whether to share it or not.

Your profile picture or information and your group names or descriptions are not encryptedand therefore can be viewed by WhatsApp.

The precise location that the user shares can share with their contacts in chat is encrypted, and cannot be viewed by third parties. app (see more information for iPhone and Android) and in those of the device. At the same time, however, WhatsApp uses IP addresses and other data for to estimate the general location of the user.

The user can use the function of loading contacts and then regularly provide the telephone numbers in your address book. If some of these do not use WhatsApp services, their information will be managed in such a way that it is not possible to identify them (more info here).

However, WhatsApp collects various information automatically, for example on user activity, on when it is online, on interactions with other people or with commercial activities and on timetables, also in terms of frequency and duration, and on the functions used. And this is just a taste: listing all the possibilities here would be long and redundant: you can consult the related section yourself

Regarding the communication with other Meta companies

WhatsApp collaborates with other companies of the Meta group, in particular in the United States, Spain, United Kingdom, Israel, Ireland, Singapore and Germany, in order to offer its services. Find the details of these companies on this page.

Each of these companies has a legal basis for the processing of the information collected, which you find listed here. However, there is an important clarification in this regard, which we prefer to quote verbatim:

WhatsApp shares the information described in the Collected Information section of this Privacy Policy globally, both internally, with Meta Companies, and externally, with third parties, pursuant to this Privacy Policy and our Terms. This includes the locations where the data centers we rely on are located and where other Meta Companies and External Third Party Service Providers (including the United States) are based. Such transfers are necessary and essential to enable us to provide the Services described in our Terms and to manage and offer our Services globally, which allow you to communicate with other users and activities around the world on WhatsApp.

Finally, we remind you that you can always delete your WhatsApp account at any time, but it may take up to 90 days for all traces of you to be removed from Meta’s systems, net of legal issues.