WhatsApp Denies Sharing Private User Data With Facebook

WhatsApp on Wednesday told an Indian court that its parent company, Facebook does not have access to its user’s data as it provides end-to-end encryption.

The company said it is going to share with Facebook only the phone number of the user and no other data, because it doesn’t have that data. 

It explained that all communications — chats, voice calls, funny photo forwards… everything — is encrypted on WhatsApp and only users have access to their data. No one else, not even WhatsApp can look into this data.

There were concerns after the messaging platform made extensive changes to its privacy policy late last month, which gave users the option of sharing their account information with Facebook for advertising purposes.

Users were however given 30 days till September 25 to opt out of the policy.

The initiative prompted two WhatsApp users in India to take the matter to the High Court to express their privacy concern.

They alleged that WhatsApp was contradicting its original promise and that the move would “severely compromise the rights of its users and make the privacy rights of users completely vulnerable”.

WhatsApp is used by over 100 million users in India every month.

“WhatsApp does not have access to any data as it provides end-to-end encryption,” counsel to WhatsApp Siddharth Luthra told the court.

“We only have access to the person’s name and number which is also obtained by online consent. We are abiding by the central government’s regulations for messenger apps.

“We are not dealing with sensitive information at all,” Luthra said, adding that “if any of the user wants to opt out of the new policy, he/she cannot be forced to not choose that option”.

The court then directed WhatsApp to file a short affidavit before September 20 explaining the factual position with regard to the concerns raised by in the petition.

The case is still ongoing and the court will take up the matter for further hearing on September 21.