WhatsApp launches its first major advertising campaign in the UK focused on privacy. The move comes after customer backlash against announced changes to its terms and conditions.
The marketing campaign, set to run internationally, starts on Monday in the UK and Germany.
Earlier this year, the communications platform also claimed they would stand firm against pressure from governments, to compromise on how it encrypts messages. WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart says authorities should “demand more security”. He believes the best way to keep people safe is for companies to have the strongest security possible. The government should encourage or even mandate that tech firms provide this.
WhatsApp uses what is known as end-to-end encryption. This means it is only possible for a message to be read only on the device it is sent from and the device which receives it. Therefore, WhatsApp, and parent company Facebook, cannot view or intercept messages, and law enforcement can’t either.
However, Home Secretary Priti Patel argues that end-to-end encryption is “not acceptable” in fighting against sharing of illegal content. She wants it used in a way that also works with public protection and child safety.
Facebook says it intends to roll out encryption more broadly across its other services.
As tech regulations tighten around the world, WhatsApp worry that increasing numbers of countries could decide to block the platform, which is already blocked in China. The firm are also in the process of suing the Indian government over new digital rules that will force violations to its privacy protections.
Tackling illegal content
Although WhatsApp cannot actually fully see what is in messages, it has developed other tools to help block illegal material, malicious content, and widely shared misinformation.
The app uses reports from recipients of messages, together with machine learning. It does this using the unencrypted data it can see, such as volume of messages sent and how many groups joined by an account.
There is also a new system in place that flags messages forwarded lots of times, and a limit on the number of people one user can share the same message with.
Every year WhatsApp ban two million accounts per month, and in 2020 reported 300,000 images to the National Centre for Missing Exploited Children.
Confusion over terms and conditions changes
In January, WhatsApp announced changes to its terms and conditions. A backlash ensued, with thousands of users threatening to leave because they wrongly thought it would begin sharing message data with Facebook.
Apparently, anyone who did not accept the updates would start losing functionality of the app.
False claims reported that the privacy of personal messages was going to change, causing alarm among users. Some even left to join rival services instead.
In reality, the changes mainly relate to enabling companies to accept payments via WhatsApp.
Mr Cathcart says the firm take full responsibility for the “confusion” created by the announcement. He also stresses that “nothing about the privacy of people’s personal conversations changed” in the update.
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