WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta.
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 |
| Legal structure | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Social Media |
| Official website | https://www.whatsapp.com/ |
Consumer impact summary
User Privacy
Collects and shares metadata, while competing apps intentionally collect less to avoid incursions on its users' privacy.[1]
Market Control
The combination of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, all owned by Meta, serve billions of active users.[2]
Incidents
This is a list of all consumer protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the WhatsApp category.
Introduction of advertising (2025)
In June 2025, Meta announced that personalized ads would be introduced into WhatsApp world wide.[3] This directly contradicts the promises made by Facebook in 2014 after it acquired the messenger ("[…] And you can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication.").[4] The personalized ads also make use of data from linked accounts on other meta platforms.[5]
Privacy policy update (2021)
There was a widespread backlash over an upcoming privacy policy update, relating the data-sharing procedures with Facebook. It outlined how businesses who use WhatsApp for customer service may store logs of its chats on Facebook servers.[6] The update received a broader concern, causing millions of users to flee the platform.[7]
"Advanced chat privacy"
The "advanced chat privacy" feature reduces data portability by disabling chat exporting. Chat exporting lets you export the entire chat history and optionally media attachments into a ZIP file. This can now be remotely disabled by the other participant, meaning the user is at the mercy of the other participant to allow exporting.
There are legitimate reasons for exporting chats such as backups in a human-readable and non-proprietary format, pre-empting erroneous account terminations (yes, they do happen), searching using external tools, and preserving good memories with people, including with deceased people (see Ed Sheeran - Old Phone). And if you don't trust someone to keep something secret, you shouldn't send it in the first place, just as you would not tell them in real life.
The developers of WhatsApp have threatened with blocking screenshots inside chats with "advanced chat privacy" enabled:
The company has stated that this is the first iteration of the feature, with plans to introduce even more robust protections in future updates, potentially including measures to block screenshots.
Mandatory updates
Frequent enforced updates are another reason against using WhatsApp. WhatsApp holds all your conversations hostage until you install their update. They could have made outdated versions read-only, letting you access existing conversations but not send anything until you update, but instead they chose to lock you out entirely.
What if you are in a location with no internet connection and unable to download the update but you need urgent access to a conversation? What if your device is suddenly no longer supported? You lose all your conversations.
Alternatives
- Signal offers most of the same features, and while not without some issues, the app is open source, relies on Privacy by Design and is operated by a non-profit.
- Matrix is more private and uses a federated design, but setup is slightly more involved than a commercial messenger.
References
- ↑ Elkind, Peter; Gillum, Jack; Silverman, Craig (7 Sep 2021). "How Facebook Undermines Privacy Protections for Its 2 Billion WhatsApp Users". ProPublica. Archived from the original on 7 Sep 2021. Retrieved 6 Mar 2025.
- ↑ Dixon, Stacy Jo (10 Jul 2024). "Most popular social networks worldwide as of April 2024, by number of monthly active users". Statista. Retrieved 6 Mar 2025.
[...] Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram.
- ↑ Scharon, Harding (2025-06-16). "Ads are "rolling out gradually" to WhatsApp". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2025-06-18.
- ↑ "Facebook". WhatsApp Blog. Retrieved 2025-06-18.
- ↑ "Helping You Find More Channels and Businesses on WhatsApp". Meta Newsroom. 2025-06-16. Retrieved 2025-06-20.
- ↑ Statt, Nick (12 Jan 2021). "WhatsApp clarifies it's not giving all your data to Facebook after surge in Signal and Telegram users". The Verge. Archived from the original on 12 Jan 2021. Retrieved 6 Mar 2025.
- ↑ Hern, Alex (24 Jan 2021). "WhatsApp loses millions of users after terms update". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 Jan 2021. Retrieved 6 Mar 2025.
- ↑ WhatsApp’s New Advanced Chat Privacy Feature to Protect Sensitive Conversations
- ↑ Jamali, Lily (23 Sep 2024). "Telegram will now provide some user data to authorities". BBC. Archived from the original on 23 Sep 2024. Retrieved 22 Jul 2025.