• The social media platform had said that it would introduce new terms by February 8, 2020, which included letting Facebook and its subsidiary companies collect their data.
• In a statement on Monday, the company said the misinformation is a sign of confusion around their update.
WhatsApp has been forced to explain itself over the recent updates that received a backlash from users.
The social media platform had said that it would introduce new terms by February 8, 2020, which included letting Facebook and its subsidiary companies collect their data.
But this information saw many users migrating to other platforms such as Signal, Telegram among others.
In a statement on Monday, the company said the misinformation is a sign of confusion around their update.
"There's been a lot of misinformation causing concern and we want to help everyone understand our principles and the facts," the company said.
It noted that WhatsApp was built on a simple idea: what you share with your friends and family stays between you.
"This means we will always protect your personal conversations with end-to-end encryption so that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can see these private messages," it said.
"We also can’t see your shared location and we don’t share your contacts with Facebook. "
WhatsApp said that with the updates, none of that is changing.
Instead, the update includes new options people will have to message a business on WhatsApp, and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data.
"While not everyone shops with a business on WhatsApp today, we think that more people will choose to do so in the future and it is important people are aware of these services," it added.
"This update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook."
It noted that they are moving back the date on which people will be asked to review and accept the terms.
"No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8. We're also going to do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security work on WhatsApp."
"We’ll then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15."
WhatsApp helped bring end-to-end encryption to people across the world.