Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended WhatsApp’s much-bashed privacy policy update, justifying that it is aimed at easing “optional experiences for businesses in the app”.
Zuckerberg said in a statement on January 28, “We are building new features to make it even easier to transact with businesses in the app. We’re building tools to let businesses store and manage their WhatsApp chats using our secure hosting infrastructure if they would like.”
According to him, WhatsApp is “in the process” of updating its privacy policy in terms of service to reflect these optional experiences. Zuckerberg also clarified that the update does not change the privacy of anyone’s messages with friends and family.
“All of these messages are end-to-end encrypted, which means we can’t see or hear what you say, and we never will, unless the person that you message chooses to share it,” he said.
“Business messages will only be hosted on our infrastructure if the business chooses to do so. We are moving the date of this update back to give everyone time to understand what the update means,” he added. More than 175 million people message a WhatsApp business account every day, Zuckerberg noted.