WhatsApp messaging platform and its business-oriented WhatsApp Business are owned by Facebook and we know how its recent privacy policy has literally shaken the world as almost nothing of a user’s private data will be away from Facebook’s hand.
While people are switching to a more secure platform like Signal and Telegram as well as trolling WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned company has recently stated all these concerns about their new policies. It has clarified a lot of things via their official FAQ page including the data used from its WhatsApp Business platform:
Facebook hosting services: Messaging with businesses is different than messaging with your family or friends. Some large businesses need to use hosting services to manage their communication. Which is why we’re giving businesses the option to use secure hosting services from Facebook to manage WhatsApp chats with their customers, answer questions, and send helpful information like purchase receipts. But whether you communicate with a business by phone, email, or WhatsApp, it can see what you’re saying and may use that information for its own marketing purposes, which may include advertising on Facebook. To make sure you’re informed, we clearly label conversations with businesses that are choosing to use hosting services from Facebook.
New commerce features: People increasingly want to be able to shop from businesses online. With Facebook branded commerce features like Shops, some businesses will display their goods right within WhatsApp so people can see what’s available to buy. If you choose to interact with Shops, your shopping activity can be used to personalize your Shops experience and the ads you see on Facebook and Instagram. Features like this are optional and when you use them we will tell you in the app how your data is being shared with Facebook.
Discovering a business: You may see an ad on Facebook with a button to message a business using WhatsApp. If you have WhatsApp installed on your phone, you’ll have the option to message that business. Facebook may use the way you interact with these ads to personalize the ads you see on Facebook.
Providing this info after such a dubious privacy policy is just like telling we do not intend to use data but being owned by Facebook we have no other choice. So, giving some medicine on the wound left by the new privacy policy makes no sense as in the release there’s no fact about how the sensitive data collected unknowingly from users will be used by Facebook itself.
Also see: WhatsApp answers all the doubts to its new controversial Privacy Policy
