WhatsApp’s Move To Share Personal Data

Following the news that WhatsApp’s public move to start sharing users’ personal data, including phone numbers to parent company Facebook, Jonathan Parker-Bray CEO and Founder at Pryvate commented below on the potential security concerns this raises.

 Jonathan Parker-Bray CEO and Founder at Pryvate:

“Over a billion WhatsApp users are currently being notified of a significant change to WhatsApp’s privacy policy – something that will allow WhatsApp to now publicly share people’s personal information for ‘the first time’ with Facebook. Furthermore, users will only be given 30 days to opt out of this change – putting the move in stark contrast to the original mission of WhatsApp CEO, Jan Koum who said in 2009 that WhatsApp will never sell personal information to anyone. However, beyond infringing an individual’s personal liberty, this move also raises worrying concerns around information sharing. WhatsApp prized itself on its end to end encryption technology. Although the end-to-end encryption will stay in place, the reality is that it does not equate to the higher levels of protection that are needed by people today, particularly those who live and work in countries where totalitarian governments impose intrusive data monitoring practices.

True end-to-end encryption solutions built from the ground up and offering top-of-the-line RSA 4096-bit encryption allow all business and personal communications to remain totally private and free from hacking.”