WhatsApp has recently started presenting new in-app alerts about its Terms of Service. The rollout began for those who hadn’t previously accepted them both on Android and iOS.

Image courtesy WABetaInfo

So, what do these changes mean for both personal and business WhatsApp accounts?

Personal Accounts

As spotted by WABetaInfo, the terms are quite similar to the one seen previously as they require users to accept the privacy policy changes. According to WhatsApp, messages and calls on personal accounts will be end-to-end encrypted. This means that WhatsApp and Facebook will not be able to see or track them. Moreover, they cannot be shared with the two and only the recipients can see or listen to them.

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Business Accounts

Business accounts will also have solution providers at their disposal. These are a set of tools used to store and manage chats with clients. They also help businesses reply to messages effectively.

These accounts do have a privacy policy of their own that is different from personal ones. This includes the right to share their chats with Facebook, in order to generate targeted advertisements.

Accounts that get to do this normally must have a high verification level. Additionally, when a business uses cloud providers to manage and store WhatsApp chats, it gets marked in the app. Messages shared with business accounts that don’t use cloud providers (or if they have good privacy practices) aren’t used to generate targeted advertisements.

To know whether a business account is sharing its client chats, you will have to check out for an alert on the chat. If it pops up, then that means the account is using a solution provider service.

Don’t Be Misguided

As you can tell, the Terms of Service mostly focus on changes being made on business accounts. These businesses will require to share data for advertisement purposes but they can also choose not to.

So, it is wise that you not get misguided into thinking that personal accounts are being affected the same way. Plus, these business accounts will notify you whether your chats with them are being stored in the cloud or not.