The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) blindly believed in the explanation of Facebook and WhatsApp regarding WhatsApp’s new privacy policy and made it a press release and shared it with the public.
Note that WhatsApp has made major changes to its privacy policy, after which the data of WhatsApp users will be shared with any third party, including Facebook. WhatsApp says that if users do not accept this policy, their accounts can be closed from February 8.
WhatsApp, however, has said that users’ messages and calls are still ‘end-to-end encrypted’, meaning that no one, including WhatsApp, can read them.
PTA has shared the long explanation of WhatsApp in its press release as if it is satisfied with the explanation and that users do not have to worry about privacy.
Although WhatsApp claims that users’ calls and messages (chats) are still encrypted, if you go into the details of business accounts in WhatsApp’s privacy policy, it states that WhatsApp can be accessed from any business account WhatsApp. Get a record of conversations or chats that you will be able to share with Facebook and other third parties.
This means that WhatsApp can monitor your conversations with such accounts and will be able to check your preferences or dislikes.
WhatsApp’s new policy not for US and European users
It is also clear that the company that owns the WhatsApp is notorious for leaking Facebook user data and has been fined in Europe and the United States.
That is why this new privacy policy will not apply to countries with strict privacy laws, including Europe, the United States and Canada. There, WhatsApp user data will not be shared with anyone after February 8, which proves that there must be something black in the lentils.
But the PTA’s presentation of the WhatsApp explanation in a press release gives the impression that a watchdog in Pakistan is satisfied with the explanation of WhatsApp and Facebook.
Because the press release does not say whether the PTA is satisfied with this explanation.