SAN FRANCISCO — When Facebook bought the startup WhatsApp in 2014, Jan Koum, WhatsApp’s cofounder, declared that the deal would not affect the digital privacy of his mobile messaging service’s millions of users.
“We don’t know your birthday. We don’t know your home address,” Koum wrote in a blog post at the time. “None of that data has ever been collected and stored by WhatsApp, and we really have no plans to change that.”
Two years later, in a move that might rankle some of the company’s 1-billion-plus users, WhatsApp will soon begin to share some member information with Facebook.
WhatsApp said Thursday that it would start disclosing the phone numbers and analytics data of its users with Facebook. It will be the first time the messaging service has connected people’s accounts to the social network to share information, as Facebook tries to coordinate information across its collection of businesses.
WhatsApp is changing its policy as its begins building a moneymaking business after long placing little emphasis on revenue. The company plans to allow businesses to directly contact customers through its platform, a similar strategy that is already being tested on Facebook Messenger, a separate messaging service owned by Facebook.
“We want to explore ways for you to communicate with businesses that matter to you too, while still giving you an experience without third-party banner ads and spam,” WhatsApp said in a blog post announcing the changes to its privacy policy.
As part of the changes, the internet messenger added, Facebook will be able to use a person’s phone number to improve other Facebook-operated services, such as making new Facebook friend suggestions or better-tailored advertising. WhatsApp said the data-sharing would also be used to fight spam text messages across its service.
WhatsApp stressed that neither it nor Facebook would be able to read people’s encrypted messages and that individual phone numbers would not be shared with advertisers. WhatsApp users are still required to provide a phone number only to sign up for the service and can opt out of sharing it with Facebook.
While WhatsApp operates autonomously from Facebook, Koum sits on Facebook’s board.
The changes are likely to be viewed with a critical eye by many who were concerned when Facebook bought WhatsApp that their data could one day be misused. WhatsApp made early inroads with people worldwide partly for its hard-line stance on privacy and individual liberties, which sprang from Koum growing up in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, where, he has said, he lived in fear of his communications being monitored. Koum has also been outspoken against advertising in the app in general.
Many WhatsApp users have appreciated just how different the service is from Facebook. In some countries, like Brazil, WhatsApp’s focus on privacy has led to criticism from law enforcement agencies that they cannot gain access to people’s encrypted messages.
“Our values and our respect for your privacy continue to guide the decisions we make at WhatsApp,” Koum said in the company blog post Thursday. “It’s why we’ve rolled out end-to-end encryption, which means no one can read your messages other than the people you talk to. Not us, not Facebook, nor anyone else.”
He added: “Our focus is the same as it’s always been — giving you a fast, simple and reliable way to stay in touch with friends and loved ones around the world.”
WhatsApp’s privacy policy overhaul raises concerns about potential legal challenges, particularly outside the United States where there are tougher data protection rules. In Europe, for instance, several national regulators have already taken legal action against Facebook, claiming the company illegally collected information online about people who were not signed up on the social network. Facebook has denied the allegations.