Messaging service WhatsApp has updated its privacy policy which left its two billion users feeling unsafe as they believe they will be left with little to no control over their personal data.
According to the updated privacy policy, WhatsApp users must agree to share their personal information with Facebook to be able to use the messaging service from Monday, 8 February.
In 2014, when WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook, it promised its users that it would not collect names, addresses, internet searches or location data.
“Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible,” CEO Jan Koum wrote in a WhatsApp blog post.
“If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values, we wouldn’t have done it. Make no mistake: our future partnership with Facebook will not compromise the vision that brought us to this point.”
In 2016, WhatsApp gave its users a one-time ability to opt out of having account data turned over to Facebook, according to Ars Technica.
According to the updated privacy policy, users will no longer be able to opt out, and must either agree to the terms and conditions or be blocked.
WhatsApp said users who wish to keep using the messaging app will have to give their names, profile pictures, status updates, phone numbers, contacts lists and IP addresses over to Facebook.