Experts on WhatsApp privacy policy: Don’t worry about data sharing, look at fineprint on location and business messaging

Experts who have been studying WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy have underlined points that have so far not got the attention it deserves, especially around the changes in how the platform now identifies location and differentiates business messages.

“The main difference lies not in data sharing with Facebook, but in their clarification that IP and phone number information is used to estimate general location even if precise location sharing (using GPS, etc.) is disabled,” Pranesh Prakash, Affiliated Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project and an independent tech policy researcher, explained to indianexpress.com over email. But fears that location data will be shared with Facebook are unfounded.