WhatsApp users will have to share their personal data with Facebook by February 8th or they will no longer be able to use the app.
After WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook, it gave its users an option to opt-out of having their account data turned over to Facebook.
Its new updated privacy policy will now require users to share phone numbers, contact information, profile names, profile pictures, user status, and diagnostic data.
The change is part of a move to allow businesses to store and manage WhatsApp chats using Facebook's infrastructure.
Whilst many conspiracy theorists now may cry about the end of encryption on the service, WhatsApp has said otherwise in a statement:
“Neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can read your messages or hear your calls with your friends, family, and co-workers on WhatsApp. Whatever you share, it stays between you. That’s because your personal messages are protected by end-to-end encryption.
"We will never weaken this security and we clearly label each chat so you know our commitment,” the statement reads.
While this means that your chats are end-to-end encrypted, the data WhatsApp talked about in its policy will still be collected.
The updated policy said that to receive services from the Facebook Companies, WhatsApp shares the information it has about you as described in the “Information We Collect” section of the Privacy Policy.
