2025-06-18T10:48:52Z

2A02:810D:548D:E500:70F0:FD6F:644:A38E: Added rollout of advertising to incidents and listed Signal and Matrix as alternatives

{{InfoboxCompany
| Name = WhatsApp
| Type =Subsidiary
| Founded =2009
| Industry =Social Media
| Official Website =https://www.whatsapp.com/
| Logo =WhatsApp Logo green.svg
}}'''[[wikipedia:WhatsApp|WhatsApp]]''' (officially '''WhatsApp Messenger''') is an American instant messaging (IM) and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate [[Meta]].

==Consumer impact summary==

===User Privacy===
Collects and shares metadata, while rivaling apps intentionally collect less to avoid incursions on its users’ privacy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Elkind |first=Peter |last2=Gillum |first2=Jack |last3=Silverman |first3=Craig |date=7 Sep 2021 |title=How Facebook Undermines Privacy Protections for Its 2 Billion WhatsApp Users |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/how-facebook-undermines-privacy-protections-for-its-2-billion-whatsapp-users |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210907090516/https://www.propublica.org/article/how-facebook-undermines-privacy-protections-for-its-2-billion-whatsapp-users |archive-date=7 Sep 2021 |access-date=6 Mar 2025 |website=ProPublica}}</ref>

===Market Control===
The combination of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, all owned by Meta, serve billions of active users.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dixon |first=Stacy Jo |date=10 Jul 2024 |title=Most popular social networks worldwide as of April 2024, by number of monthly active users |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/ |access-date=6 Mar 2025 |website=Statista}}</ref>

==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 [[:Category:WhatsApp messenger|{{PAGENAME}} category]].

=== Introduction of advertising (2025) ===
In June 2025, Meta announced that personalized ads would be introduced into WhatsApp world wide.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Scharon |first=Harding |date=2025-06-16 |title=Ads are “rolling out gradually” to WhatsApp |url=https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/06/ads-are-rolling-out-gradually-to-whatsapp/ |access-date=2025-06-18 |website=Ars Technica}}</ref> This directly contradicts the promises made by Facebook in 2014 after it aquired the messenger ''("[…] And you can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication.")''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Facebook |url=https://blog.whatsapp.com/facebook?lang=en |access-date=2025-06-18 |website=WhatsApp Blog}}</ref>

===Privacy policy update (2021)===
{{Main|WhatsApp updates privacy policy and millions of users flee the platform}}
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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Statt |first=Nick |date=12 Jan 2021 |title=WhatsApp clarifies it’s not giving all your data to Facebook after surge in Signal and Telegram users |url=https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/12/22226792/whatsapp-privacy-policy-response-signal-telegram-controversy-clarification |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112161057/https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/12/22226792/whatsapp-privacy-policy-response-signal-telegram-controversy-clarification |archive-date=12 Jan 2021 |access-date=6 Mar 2025 |website=The Verge}}</ref> The update received a broader concern, causing millions of users to flee the platform.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hern |first=Alex |date=24 Jan 2021 |title=WhatsApp loses millions of users after terms update |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jan/24/whatsapp-loses-millions-of-users-after-terms-update |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124165416/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jan/24/whatsapp-loses-millions-of-users-after-terms-update |archive-date=24 Jan 2021 |access-date=6 Mar 2025 |website=The Guardian}}</ref>

== Alternatives ==
[https://www.signal.org Signal] offers most of the same features, and while [[Signal Data Collection|not without some issues]], the app is open source, relies on Privacy by Design and is operated by a non-profit.

[https://matrix.org/ Matrix] is more private and uses a federated design, but setup is slightly more involved than a commercial messenger.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:WhatsApp messenger]]

Consumer Rights Wiki - User contributions [en]

WhatsApp