WhatsApp reacts to privacy concerns

WhatsApp CEO, Jan Koum, is "setting the record straight" in a blog post about privacy concerns raised by the app's customers after the Facebook deal. 

Social Media's track record of collecting personal information does not leave Facebook out, and WhatsApp was concerned by customers to be implicated into the same practices after the takeover. Alarm bells rang even louder when news came out that WhatsApp stores phone numbers of users, including everyone in their address books regardless of whether or not they use the app.

Many people are concerned, then, that personal information will be collected which could be used, among other things, to produce relevant adverts.

Jan Koum denounces this in his blog post.

He makes it clear that data such as e-mail addresses and GPS-locations haven't and will not be collected in the future.

"We don't know your birthday. We don't know your home address", Koum writes. "We don't know your likes, what you search for on the internet or collect your GPS location. none of that data has even been collected and stored by WhatsApp, and we really have no plans to change that."

Koum goes on to say that the deal with Facebook would never have been made if privacy was on the line, or if the company would have to change their values.