WhatsApp Using Status Messages to Reassure Users of Its ‘Commitment to Privacy’

American messaging application WhatsApp has now started posting status messages about its "commitment to your privacy," due to misperceptions about the upcoming changes to its privacy policy.

While these status messages have been appearing in India for a while now, according to The Verge, the in-app status messages started appearing in the US and UK on Saturday.

The status messages read "One thing that isn't new is our commitment to your privacy," along with a reminder that "WhatsApp can't read or listen to your personal conversations as they're end-to-end encrypted."

In an email to The Verge, a WhatsApp spokesperson said, "There's been a lot of misinformation and confusion around our recent update and we want to help everyone understand the facts behind how WhatsApp protects people's privacy and security."

He added, "Going forward, we're going to provide updates to people in the Status tab so people hear from WhatsApp directly. Our first update reaffirms that WhatsApp cannot see your personal messages and neither can Facebook because they are protected by end-to-end encryption."

As per the Verge, the status messages are part of a larger effort by WhatsApp to dismiss misperceptions about an upcoming update to its privacy policy. This new update is meant to explain how businesses that use WhatsApp for customer service may store logs of their chats on Facebook's servers.

WhatsApp previewed the changes to business chats in November. Given Facebook's history of privacy blunders, however, users misinterpreted the changes to the privacy policy to mean WhatsApp would require sharing sensitive profile information with Facebook.

Does WhatsApp's new privacy policy spell the end for your privacy? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.