Newsgroup: it.diritto
Titolo: WhatsApp legalese


 
Cioe', avete capito, e' un "libro", altro che "contratto".
Ma andiamo per ordine:
 
WhatsApp
 
*    Key Updates
*    Terms of Service
*    Privacy Policy
*    European Electronic Communications Code Notice and Contract Summary
*    Privacy Shield
*    Intellectual Property Policy
*    Cookies
*    Information for people who don't use WhatsApp
 
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 *    Key Updates
 
We’re updating our Privacy Policy for our users, at the direction of our 
lead European data protection regulator, the Irish Data Protection 
Commission.
 
As always, we can’t read or listen to your personal conversations, 
because they are end-to-end encrypted. This will never change.
 
We know that privacy is a top concern for our users, so we want to be 
very clear: this update does not change the way we operate our service, 
including how we process, use or share your data with anyone, including 
our parent company Meta.
 
Rather, we’ve better organised our Privacy Policy and updated it with 
additional information, including:
 
     How we use data: We’ve added more detail about data we collect and 
use, why we store and when we delete your data, and what services third 
parties provide to us.
     Our global operations: We've added more detail about why we share 
data across borders to provide our global service, and how we protect 
that data.
     Our legal bases for processing: We’ve added more detail about the 
legal bases we rely on for processing your data.
 
We hope you continue to enjoy using WhatsApp.


 *    Terms of Service
 
Last modified: January 4, 2021 (archived versions)
WhatsApp Terms Of Service
 
Table of Contents
 
     About Our Services
     Privacy Policy And User Data
     Acceptable Use Of Our Services
     Third-Party Services
     Licenses
     Reporting Third-Party Copyright, Trademark, And Other Intellectual 
Property Infringement
     Disclaimers And Release
     Limitation Of Liability
     Dispute Resolution
     Availability And Termination Of Our Services
     Other
     Accessing WhatsApp's Terms in Different Languages
 
If you don't live in the European Region, WhatsApp LLC provides WhatsApp 
to you under this Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
 
Click here for the WhatsApp Contract Summary and for information we are 
required by the European Electronic Communications Code to provide.
 
In order to provide our Services (as defined below) through our apps, 
services, features, software, or website, we need to obtain your 
agreement to our Terms of Service ("Terms").
 
WhatsApp Ireland Limited ("WhatsApp," "our," "we," or "us") provides the 
services described below to you ("Services") if you live in a country or 
territory in the European Economic Area (which includes the European 
Union), and any other included country or territory (collectively 
referred to as the "European Region"). If you live in any other country 
or territory except those in the European Region, WhatsApp LLC provides 
the Services to you under this Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
 
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About Our Services
 
     Privacy And Security Principles. Since we started WhatsApp, we've 
built our Services with strong privacy and security principles in mind.
     Connecting You With Other People. We provide, and always strive to 
improve, ways for you to communicate with other WhatsApp users including 
through messages, voice and video calls, sending images and video, 
showing your status, and sharing your location with others when you 
choose. WhatsApp works with partners, service providers, and affiliated 
companies to help us provide ways for you to connect with their services.
     Communicating With Businesses. We provide, and always strive to 
improve, ways for you and businesses and other organisations, to 
communicate with each other using our Services, such as through order, 
transaction, and appointment information, delivery and shipping 
notifications, product and service updates, and marketing. We offer 
specific features and services to businesses and other organisations 
such as providing them with statistics regarding their use of our Services.
     Safety, Security, And Integrity. We work to protect the safety, 
security, and integrity of our Services. This includes appropriately 
dealing with abusive people and activity violating our Terms. We work to 
prohibit misuse of our Services including harmful conduct towards 
others. If we learn of people or activity like this, we will take 
appropriate action by removing such people or activity or contacting law 
enforcement. Any such removal of people will be in accordance with the 
"Termination" section below.
     Enabling Access To Our Services. To operate our global Services, we 
need to store and distribute content and information in data centers and 
systems around the world, including outside your country of residence. 
The use of this global infrastructure is necessary and essential to 
provide our Services. This infrastructure may be owned or operated by 
our service providers including affiliated companies.
 
NO ACCESS TO EMERGENCY SERVICES: There are important differences between 
our Services and your mobile phone and a fixed-line telephone and SMS 
services. Our Services do not provide access to emergency services or 
emergency services providers, including the police, fire departments, or 
hospitals, or otherwise connect to public safety answering points. You 
should ensure you can contact your relevant emergency services providers 
through a mobile phone, a fixed-line telephone, or other service.
 
Registration. You must register for our Services using accurate 
information, provide your current mobile phone number, and, if you 
change it, update your mobile phone number using our in-app change 
number feature. You agree to receive text messages and phone calls (from 
us or our third-party providers) with codes to register for our Services.
 
Address Book. You can use the contact upload feature and provide us, if 
permitted by applicable laws, with the phone numbers in your mobile 
address book on a regular basis, including those of both the users of 
our Services and your other contacts. Learn more about our contact 
upload feature here.
 
Age. If you live in a country or territory in the European Region, you 
must be at least 16 years old to use our Services or such greater age 
required in your country or territory to register for or use our 
Services without parental approval. If you live in any other country or 
territory except those in the European Region, you must be at least 13 
years old to use our Services or such greater age required in your 
country or territory to register for or use our Services. In addition to 
being of the minimum required age to use our Services under applicable 
law, if you are not old enough to have authority to agree to our Terms 
in your country or territory, your parent or guardian must agree to our 
Terms on your behalf in order for you to use the Services. Please ask 
your parent or guardian to read these Terms with you.
 
Devices And Software. You must provide certain devices, software, and 
data connections to use our Services, which we otherwise do not supply. 
In order to use our Services, you consent to manually or automatically 
download and install updates to our Services. You also consent to our 
sending you notifications via our Services from time to time, as 
necessary to provide our Services to you.
 
Fees And Taxes. You are responsible for all carrier data plans, Internet 
fees, and other fees and taxes associated with your use of our Services.
 
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Privacy Policy And User Data
 
WhatsApp cares about your privacy. WhatsApp's Privacy Policy describes 
our data (including message) practices, including the types of 
information we receive and collect from you, how we use and share this 
information, and your rights in relation to the processing of 
information about you.
 
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Acceptable Use Of Our Services
 
Our Terms And Policies. You must use our Services according to our Terms 
and policies. If you violate our Terms or policies, we may take action 
with respect to your account, including disabling or suspending your 
account and, if we do, you agree not to create another account without 
our permission. Disabling or suspending your account will be in 
accordance with the "Termination" section below.
 
Legal And Acceptable Use. You must access and use our Services only for 
legal, authorized, and acceptable purposes. You will not use (or assist 
others in using) our Services in ways that: (a) violate, misappropriate, 
or infringe the rights of WhatsApp, our users, or others, including 
privacy, publicity, intellectual property, or other proprietary rights; 
(b) are illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, intimidating, 
harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or instigate or 
encourage conduct that would be illegal or otherwise inappropriate, such 
as promoting violent crimes, endangering or exploiting children or 
others, or coordinating harm; (c) involve publishing falsehoods, 
misrepresentations, or misleading statements; (d) impersonate someone; 
(e) involve sending illegal or impermissible communications, such as 
bulk messaging, auto-messaging, auto-dialing, and the like; or (f) 
involve any non-personal use of our Services unless otherwise authorized 
by us.
 
Harm To WhatsApp Or Our Users. You must not (or assist others to) 
directly, indirectly, through automated or other means access, use, 
copy, adapt, modify, prepare derivative works based upon, distribute, 
license, sublicense, transfer, display, perform, or otherwise exploit 
our Services in impermissible or unauthorized manners, or in ways that 
burden, impair, or harm us, our Services, systems, our users, or others, 
including that you must not directly or through automated means: (a) 
reverse engineer, alter, modify, create derivative works from, 
decompile, or extract code from our Services; (b) send, store, or 
transmit viruses or other harmful computer code through or onto our 
Services; (c) gain or attempt to gain unauthorized access to our 
Services or systems; (d) interfere with or disrupt the safety, security, 
confidentiality, integrity, availability or performance of our Services; 
(e) create accounts for our Services through unauthorized or automated 
means; (f) collect information of or about our users in any 
impermissible or unauthorized manner; (g) sell, resell, rent, or charge 
for our Services or data obtained from us or our Services in an 
unauthorized manner; (h) distribute or make our Services available over 
a network where they could be used by multiple devices at the same time, 
except as authorized through tools we have expressly provided via our 
Services; (i) create software or APIs that function substantially the 
same as our Services and offer them for use by third parties in an 
unauthorized manner; or (j) misuse any reporting channels, such as by 
submitting fraudulent or groundless reports or appeals.
 
Keeping Your Account Secure. You are responsible for keeping your device 
and your WhatsApp account safe and secure, and you must notify us 
promptly of any unauthorized use or security breach of your account or 
our Services.
 
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Third-Party Services
 
Our Services may allow you to access, use, or interact with third-party 
websites, apps, content, other products and services, and Meta Company 
Products. For example, you may choose to use third-party data backup 
services (such as iCloud or Google Drive) that are integrated with our 
Services or interact with a share button on a third-party's website that 
enables you to send information to your WhatsApp contacts. Please note 
that these Terms and our Privacy Policy apply only to the use of our 
Services. When you use third-party products or services or other Meta 
Company Products, their own terms and privacy policies will govern your 
use of those products or services.
 
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Licenses
 
Your Rights. WhatsApp does not claim ownership of the information that 
you submit for your WhatsApp account or through our Services. You must 
have the necessary rights to such information that you submit for your 
WhatsApp account or through our Services and the right to grant the 
rights and licenses in our Terms.
 
WhatsApp's Rights. We own all copyrights, trademarks, domains, logos, 
trade dress, trade secrets, patents, and other intellectual property 
rights associated with our Services. You may not use our copyrights, 
trademarks (or any similar marks), domains, logos, trade dress, trade 
secrets, patents, or other intellectual property rights unless you have 
our express permission and except in accordance with our Brand 
Guidelines. You may use the trademarks of our affiliate companies only 
with their permission, including as authorized in any published brand 
guidelines.
 
Your License To WhatsApp. In order to operate and provide our Services, 
you grant WhatsApp a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, 
sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, 
create derivative works of, display, and perform the information 
(including the content) that you upload, submit, store, send, or receive 
on or through our Services. The rights you grant in this license are for 
the limited purpose of operating and providing our Services (such as to 
allow us to display your profile picture and status message, transmit 
your messages, and store your undelivered messages on our servers for up 
to 30 days as we try to deliver them).
 
WhatsApp's License To You. We grant you a limited, revocable, 
non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, and non-transferable license to use 
our Services, subject to and in accordance with our Terms. This license 
is for the sole purpose of enabling you to use our Services in the 
manner permitted by our Terms. No licenses or rights are granted to you 
by implication or otherwise, except for the licenses and rights 
expressly granted to you.
 
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Reporting Third-Party Copyright, Trademark, And Other Intellectual 
Property Infringement
 
To report claims of third-party copyright, trademark, or other 
intellectual property infringement, please visit our Intellectual 
Property Policy. We may take action with respect to your account, 
including disabling or suspending your account, if you clearly, 
seriously or repeatedly infringe the intellectual property rights of 
others or where we are required to do so for legal reasons. Disabling or 
suspending your account will be in accordance with the "Termination" 
section below.
 
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Disclaimers And Release
 
You use our Services at your own risk and subject to the following 
disclaimers. We are providing our Services on an "as is" basis without 
any express or implied warranties, including, but not limited to, 
warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, 
non-infringement, and freedom from computer virus or other harmful code. 
We do not warrant that any information provided by us is accurate, 
complete, or useful, that our Services will be operational, error free, 
secure, or safe, or that our Services will function without disruptions, 
delays, or imperfections. We do not control and are not responsible for, 
controlling how or when our users use our Services or the features, 
services, and interfaces our Services provide. We are not responsible 
for and are not obligated to control the actions or information 
(including content) of our users or other third-parties. You release us, 
our subsidiaries, affiliates, and our and their directors, officers, 
employees, partners, and agents (together, the "WhatsApp Parties") from 
any claim, complaint, cause of action, controversy, or damages 
(together, "Claim"), known and unknown, relating to, arising out of, or 
in any way connected with any such Claim you have against any 
third-parties. Your rights with respect to the WhatsApp Parties are not 
modified by the foregoing disclaimer if the laws of your country or 
territory of residence, applicable as a result of your use of our 
Services, do not permit it.
 
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Limitation Of Liability
 
WhatsApp is only liable to the following extent:
 
WhatsApp is liable without limitation in accordance with the statutory 
provisions for damages resulting from injury to life, body or health; in 
the case of intent; in the case of gross negligence; and in accordance 
with the Product Liability Directive.
 
WhatsApp will exercise professional diligence in providing the Services 
to you. Provided that we have acted with professional diligence, 
WhatsApp does not accept responsibility for losses not caused by our 
breach of these Terms or otherwise by our acts; losses that are not 
reasonably foreseeable by you and us at the time of entering into these 
Terms; and events beyond our reasonable control.
 
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Dispute Resolution
 
If you are a consumer and habitually reside in a country or territory 
within the European Region, the laws of your country or territory will 
apply to any Claim you have against us that arises out of or relates to 
these Terms or our Services, and you may resolve your Claim in any 
competent court in your country or territory that has jurisdiction over 
the Claim. In all other cases, you agree that the Claim must be resolved 
in a competent court in Ireland that has jurisdiction over the Claim and 
that the laws of Ireland will govern these Terms and any Claim, without 
regard to conflict of law provisions.
 
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Availability And Termination Of Our Services
 
Availability Of Our Services. We are always trying to improve our 
Services. That means we may expand, add, or remove our Services, 
features, functionalities, and the support of certain devices and 
platforms. Our Services may be interrupted, including for maintenance, 
repairs, upgrades, or network or equipment failures. We may discontinue 
some or all of our Services, including certain features and the support 
for certain devices and platforms, at any time after a notice period of 
30 days, with no such notice being required in urgent situations such as 
preventing abuse, responding to legal requirements, or addressing 
security and operability issues. Events beyond our control may affect 
our Services, such as events in nature and other force majeure events.
 
Termination. Although we hope you remain a WhatsApp user, you can 
terminate your relationship with WhatsApp anytime for any reason by 
deleting your account. For instructions on how to do so, please visit 
the Android, iPhone, or KaiOS articles in our Help Center.
 
Our right to terminate for cause remains unaffected. Good cause shall be 
deemed to exist if one party violates laws, third-party rights, or 
otherwise breaches these Terms, and the terminating party cannot 
reasonably be expected to continue the contractual relationship until 
the agreed termination date or until the expiry of a notice period, 
taking into account all circumstances of the individual case and after 
weighing the interests of both parties. A termination for good cause is 
only possible within a reasonable period of time after a breach has come 
to the knowledge of the other party.
 
If the important reason is a violation of an obligation of these Terms, 
termination is only permissible after the unsuccessful expiration of a 
granted remedy period or after an unsuccessful warning. However, this 
does not apply if the party in breach seriously and finally refuses to 
fulfill its obligations or if, after weighing the interests of both 
parties, special circumstances justify immediate termination.
 
In accordance with this "Termination" section, we may also modify, 
suspend, or terminate your access to or use of our Services anytime for 
suspicious or unlawful conduct, including for fraud, or if we reasonably 
believe you violate our Terms or create harm, risk, or possible legal 
exposure for us, our users, or others. We may also disable or delete 
your account if it does not become active after account registration or 
if it remains inactive for an extended period of time. If you delete 
your account or we delete or disable it, these Terms will end as an 
agreement between you and us, but the following provisions will survive 
any termination of your relationship with WhatsApp: "Licenses," 
"Disclaimers And Release," "Limitation Of Liability," "Dispute 
Resolution," "Availability And Termination Of Our Services," and 
"Other.” If you believe your account's termination or suspension was in 
error, please contact us at 
sup...@support.whatsapp.com
.
 
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Other
 
     Unless a mutually executed agreement between you and us states 
otherwise, our Terms make up the entire agreement between you and us 
regarding WhatsApp and our Services, and supersede any prior agreements.
     We reserve the right to designate in the future that certain of our 
Services are governed by separate terms (where, as applicable, you may 
separately consent).
     Our Services are not intended for distribution to or use in any 
country or territory where such distribution or use would violate local 
law or would subject us to any regulations in another country or 
territory. We reserve the right to limit our Services in any country or 
territory.
     You will comply with all applicable United States and non-United 
States export control and trade sanctions laws ("Export Laws"). You will 
not, directly or indirectly, export, re-export, provide, or otherwise 
transfer our Services: (a) to any individual, entity, territory, or 
country prohibited by Export Laws; (b) to anyone on United States or 
non-United States government restricted parties lists; or (c) for any 
purpose prohibited by Export Laws, including nuclear, chemical, or 
biological weapons, or missile technology applications without the 
required government authorizations. You will not use or download our 
Services if you are located in a restricted country or territory, if you 
are currently listed on any United States or non-United States 
restricted parties list, or for any purpose prohibited by Export Laws, 
and you will not disguise your location through IP proxying or other 
methods.
     Any amendment to or waiver of our Terms proposed by you requires 
our express consent.
     We are constantly working to improve our Services and develop new 
features to make our products even better for you and our community. 
Therefore, we may need to update these Terms from time to time to 
reflect our Services and practices correctly. We will only make changes 
if the provisions are no longer appropriate or incomplete. Unless 
otherwise required by law, we will provide you at least 30 days' advance 
notice of changes to our Terms (e.g., by e-mail or through the 
Services), which will give you the opportunity to review the revised 
Terms before they become effective, and we will ensure that any such 
changes are reasonable for you, taking into consideration your 
interests. We will also update the "Last modified" date at the top of 
our Terms. Changes to these Terms shall become effective no sooner than 
30 days after we provide notice of planned changes. Once updated Terms 
come into effect, you will be bound by them if you continue to use our 
Services. We hope you will continue using our Services, but if you do 
not agree to our Terms, as amended, you must stop using our Services by 
deleting your account.
     All of our rights and obligations under our Terms are freely 
assignable by us to any of our affiliates or in connection with a 
merger, acquisition, restructuring, or sale of assets, or by operation 
of law or otherwise. In the event of such an assignment, we will only 
transfer your information in compliance with applicable laws, and ask 
for your consent where required; these Terms will continue to govern 
your relationship with such third-party. We hope you will continue using 
WhatsApp, but if you do not agree to such an assignment, you must stop 
using our Services by deleting your account after having been notified 
about the assignment.
     You will not transfer any of your rights or obligations under our 
Terms to anyone else without our prior written consent.
     Nothing in our Terms will prevent us from complying with the law.
     Except as contemplated herein, our Terms do not give any 
third-party beneficiary rights.
     If we fail to enforce any of our Terms, it will not be considered a 
waiver.
     If any provision of these Terms is found to be unlawful, void, or 
for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed 
amended to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable, and if 
it cannot be made enforceable, then it shall be deemed severable from 
our Terms and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the 
remaining provisions of our Terms, and the remaining portion of our 
Terms will remain in full force and effect.
     We reserve all rights not expressly granted by us to you. In 
certain jurisdictions, you may have legal rights as a consumer, and our 
Terms are not intended to limit such consumer legal rights that may not 
be waived by contract. Also, in certain jurisdictions, you may have 
legal rights as a data subject, and our Terms are not intended to limit 
such rights that may not be waived by contract.
     We always appreciate your feedback or other suggestions about 
WhatsApp and our Services, but you understand that you have no 
obligation to provide feedback or suggestions and that we may use your 
feedback or suggestions without any restriction or obligation to 
compensate you for them.
 
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Accessing WhatsApp's Terms in Different Languages
 
To access our Terms in certain other languages, change the language 
setting for your WhatsApp session. If our Terms are not available in the 
language you select, we will default to the English version.
 
Please review the following documents, which provide additional 
information about your use of our Services:
 
WhatsApp Privacy Policy
WhatsApp Intellectual Property Policy
WhatsApp Brand Guidelines


 *    Privacy Policy
 
WhatsApp Privacy Policy
 
Table of Contents
 
     Key Updates
     WhatsApp Legal Info
     Information We Collect
     Information Shared by You and by Us with Third Parties
     How We Work With Other Meta Companies
     How and Why We Process Your Information and Our Legal Basis For 
Processing
     How To Exercise Your Rights
     Retention of Your Information
     Deleting Your Information
     Managing Your Information
     Working With Authorities, Advisors And Industry Partners
     Transferring information outside the EEA as part of Our Global 
Operations
     Updates to Our Privacy Policy
     Contact Us
 
If you don't live in the European Region, WhatsApp LLC provides the 
services to you under this Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Key Updates
 
We’re updating our Privacy Policy for our users, at the direction of our 
lead European data protection regulator, the Irish Data Protection 
Commission.
 
As always, we can’t read or listen to your personal conversations, 
because they are end-to-end encrypted. This will never change.
 
We know that privacy is a top concern for our users, so we want to be 
very clear: this update does not change the way we operate our service, 
including how we process, use or share your data with anyone, including 
our parent company Meta.
 
Rather, we’ve better organised our Privacy Policy and updated it with 
additional information, including:
 
     How we use data: We’ve added more detail about data we collect and 
use, why we store and when we delete your data, and what services third 
parties provide to us.
     Our global operations: We've added more detail about why we share 
data across borders to provide our global service, and how we protect 
that data.
     Our legal bases for processing: We’ve added more detail about the 
legal bases we rely on for processing your data.
 
We hope you continue to enjoy using WhatsApp.
 
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WhatsApp Legal Info
 
If you live in the European Region, WhatsApp Ireland Limited 
("WhatsApp," "our," "we," or "us") provides our Services to you under 
the Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy. If you live outside the 
European Region, the Services are provided to you by WhatsApp LLC.
 
Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA. Since we started 
WhatsApp, we've aspired to build our Services with a set of strong 
privacy principles in mind.
 
We are one of the Meta Companies. Our Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy") 
explains our data practices, including the information we process to 
provide our Services.
 
For example, our Privacy Policy talks about what information we collect 
and how this affects you. It also explains the steps we take to protect 
your privacy, like building our Services so delivered messages aren't 
stored by us and giving you control over who you communicate with on our 
Services.
 
This Privacy Policy applies to all of our Services unless specified 
otherwise.
 
Please also read WhatsApp's Terms of Service ("Terms"), which describe 
the terms under which you use and we provide our Services.
 
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Information We Collect
 
The types of information we receive and collect depend on how you use 
our Services. We require certain of Your Account Information in 
accordance with our Terms to deliver our Services and without this we 
will not be able to provide our Services to you. For example, you must 
provide your mobile phone number to create an account to use our Services.
 
Our Services have optional features which, if used by you, require us to 
collect additional information to provide such features. You will be 
notified of such a collection, as appropriate. If you choose not to 
provide the information needed to use a feature, you will be unable to 
use the feature. For example, you cannot share your Precise Location 
Information with your contacts if you do not enable location sharing on 
your device. Permissions can be managed through your device-based 
settings on both Android and iOS devices.
Information You Provide
 
     Your Account Information. You must provide your mobile phone number 
and a profile name of your choice to create a WhatsApp account. If you 
don’t provide us with this information, you will not be able to create 
an account to use our Services. You can add other optional information 
to your account, such as a profile picture, and "about" information.
     User Content.
         Your Messages, Media within Messages, and Calls: We offer 
end-to-end encryption for our Services. End-to-end encryption means that 
your calls, messages, media within messages including content like 
images, audio, video, documents and files are encrypted to protect 
against third parties (including WhatsApp) from seeing that content. 
Learn more about end-to-end encryption and how businesses communicate 
with you on WhatsApp.
 
         Typically your messages are stored on your device(s) and not on 
our servers. We temporarily store your messages in encrypted form while 
they are being delivered. Once your messages are delivered, they are 
deleted from our servers.
 
         If a message cannot be delivered, we keep it in encrypted form 
on our servers for up to 30 days while we try to deliver it. If a 
message is still undelivered after 30 days, we delete it. We cannot see 
the contents of undelivered messages stored on our servers as they are 
encrypted.
 
         When a user sends media within a message, we store that media 
for up to 30 days in encrypted form on our servers to aid in more 
efficient delivery, such as if recipients choose to forward the media. 
We cannot see the media as it is encrypted.
         Status Information. You can choose to share your Status, which 
is also end-to-end encrypted.
         Precise Location Information. We enable you to share your 
Precise Location Information from your device when you choose to use 
location-related features, like when you decide to share your current 
location with, or send live location to your contacts, or view locations 
nearby. Precise Location Information that you share with your contacts 
in your chats is encrypted so WhatsApp cannot see it. You can control 
your Precise Location Information sharing in your in-app settings (see 
more information for iPhone and Android) and your device-based settings.
         You may also provide content that is not encrypted which means 
that we can see it. This includes your profile picture, your "about" 
information and names and descriptions of your groups.
     Your Connections.
     You can use contact upload and provide us with the phone numbers in 
your device address book on a regular basis, including those of users of 
our Services and your other contacts. If any of your contacts aren’t yet 
using our Services, we’ll manage this information in a way that is 
designed to ensure that those contacts cannot be identified by us. Learn 
more about contact upload and about the information we provide to people 
who do not use WhatsApp here. We also collect information on users who 
contact you that aren't in your device address book and any users you've 
blocked or who have blocked you.
     Your Group Information.
     You can create, join, or get added to groups and broadcast lists, 
and such groups and lists get associated with your account. You give 
your groups a name. You can provide a group profile picture or 
description. We also collect information about when groups are created 
or updated.
     Customer Support Information And Other Communications.
     When you contact us for customer support or otherwise communicate 
with us, you may provide us with information related to your use of our 
Services, including copies of your messages, any other information you 
deem helpful in order for us to understand and resolve your query, and 
how to contact you (e.g., an email address). For example, you may send 
us an email with information relating to app performance or other 
issues. We also collect information on how you use our customer support 
features (e.g., the searches you make on our Help Center) and any 
feedback you give us on the customer support experience.
     Account Access Information.
     When you sign up or log-in to our Service, we verify your phone 
number by sending you a code via SMS or calling you. You can also add a 
PIN to enable two-step verification and an email address that can be 
used to reset that PIN.
 
Automatically Collected Information
 
     Usage Information.
     We collect information about your usage of our Services. This 
includes collecting information about your activity (including how you 
use our Services), how you interact with others using our Services 
(including when you interact with a business), and the time, frequency, 
and duration of your activities. This also includes information about 
the features you use like our messaging (and integrated applications), 
calling, Status, groups or business features; whether you are online; 
timestamps related to your use such as when you last used our Services 
(your "last seen") and the times you send and receive calls and 
messages; and when you last updated your "about" information.
     Log and Troubleshooting Information.
     We collect information about how our Services are performing when 
you use them, like service related diagnostic and performance 
information. This information includes log files, timestamps, diagnostic 
or crash data, website performance logs and error messages or reports.
     Device And Connection Information.
     We collect device and connection-specific information when you 
install, access, or use our Services. This includes information such as 
hardware model, operating system information, battery level, signal 
strength, app version, browser information, mobile network, connection 
information including whether you are using wifi or cellular data, 
mobile operator or internet service provider (ISP), language and time 
zone, IP address, device operations information and identifiers 
(including identifiers unique to Meta Company Products associated with 
the same device or account).
     General Location Information.
     Even if you do not choose to use our precise location-related 
features (see Information Shared by You and by Us with Third Parties), 
we use IP addresses and other information like phone number area codes, 
to estimate your general location (e.g., country).
     Cookies.
     We collect information using cookies to operate and provide our 
web-based Services and website. Learn more about how we use cookies to 
provide you our Services.
     User Choices.
     We collect information about your in-app settings, privacy settings 
and records about when you accepted our Terms. Only you are in control 
of your privacy settings which can be used to change who can see your 
"last seen", profile photo, "about" information, Status updates, read 
receipts or add you to groups. We also collect information about whether 
you have enabled push notifications and whether you wish to send 
disappearing messages.
     Authentication Information.
     To verify and grant appropriate authorisations as you use the 
Services (such as when you choose to use encrypted backups and create 
your unique password), we create and store authentication codes which 
are a security measure to ensure only you are accessing your account. 
Authentication Information also includes your public encryption keys 
that our end-to-end encryption protocol uses. Messages are encrypted 
before they reach our servers which means that we cannot see them.
 
Information Third Parties Provide About You
 
     Information Others Provide About You.
     We receive information about you from other users. For example, 
when other users you know use our Services, they may provide your phone 
number if they use contact upload just as you may provide theirs. We 
require each of these users to have lawful rights to collect, use, and 
share your information before providing any information to us. They may 
also send you messages, send messages to groups to which you belong, or 
call you. You should keep in mind that in general any user can capture 
screenshots of your chats or messages or make recordings of your calls 
with them and send them to WhatsApp or anyone else, or post them on 
another platform.
     User Reports.
     Just as you can report other users, other users or third parties 
may also choose to report to us your interactions and your messages with 
them or others on our Services; for example, to report possible 
violations of our Terms or policies. When a report is submitted to us 
through the reporting tools, we receive information from the reporter on 
both the reporting user and those reported. To find out more about the 
information we receive when a User Report is submitted to us and what 
happens when a User Report is submitted, please see About blocking and 
reporting contacts.
     Businesses On WhatsApp.
     When businesses you interact with while using our Services provide 
us with information about their interactions with you, we require each 
of these businesses to act in accordance with applicable law.
 
     When you message with a business on WhatsApp, keep in mind that the 
content you share may be visible to several people in that business. In 
addition, some businesses might be working with third-party service 
providers (which may include Meta) to help manage their communications 
with their customers. For example, a business may give such third-party 
service providers access to its communications to send, store, read, 
manage or otherwise process them for the business. To understand how a 
business processes your information, including how it might share your 
information with third parties or Meta, you should review that 
business’s privacy policy or contact the business directly.
     Third-Party Services.
     WhatsApp receives information about bad actors and abuse from Meta 
Companies and app verification information from anti-abuse services to 
promote safety, security and integrity. For example, when Meta becomes 
aware of a scam encouraging individuals to contact a phone number via 
WhatsApp, they might share that phone number with WhatsApp so we can 
investigate the WhatsApp account.
 
     We also allow you to use our Services in connection with 
third-party services and Meta Company Products. If you use our Services 
with such third-party services or Meta Company Products, we may receive 
information about you from them; for example, if you use the WhatsApp 
share button on a news service to share a news article with your 
WhatsApp contacts, groups, or broadcast lists on our Services. Please 
note that when you use third-party services or Meta Company Products, 
the terms and privacy policies of the company that offers those services 
will govern your use of those services and products.
 
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Information Shared by You and by Us with Third Parties
 
You share your information as you use and communicate through our 
Services, and we share your information to help us operate, provide, 
improve, understand, customise and support our Services.
 
     Send Your Information To Those With Whom You Choose To Communicate. 
You share User Content when you communicate through our Services. You 
are in control of what you are sending when you send your information to 
the individual or business WhatsApp users you choose to communicate 
with. Please be mindful that, once you have sent User Content to a 
WhatsApp user, they can store or reshare it with others on and off our 
Services.
     Information Associated With Your Account. As part of your WhatsApp 
messaging experience and based on your privacy settings, those users who 
have your phone number can see Your Account Information (phone number, 
profile photo, "about" information), and can add you to groups where 
this information is then potentially visible to others in the group. 
When you send a message to another user or to a group, your chosen 
profile name will become visible to the recipients of the message, 
including users who do not have you in their contact list. Users who 
have your phone number can also see your “last seen” information and 
your message receipts, depending on your privacy settings. You can 
configure your privacy settings to manage group membership, and certain 
information (for example, your “last seen”) available to other users. 
Please see our help centre for more information on how to change your 
privacy settings.
     Third-Party Services. When you, or other users you interact with, 
use third-party services or other Meta Company Products that are linked 
through our Services, the providers of those services or products may 
receive the information about you that you or others share with them. 
For example, if you use a data backup service integrated with our 
Services (like iCloud or Google Drive), they will receive the 
information you share with them, such as your WhatsApp messages, and if 
you search the web from WhatsApp for a group profile picture, the search 
engine provider will receive the search term you use. If you interact 
with a third-party service or other Meta Company Products through our 
Services, such as when you use the in-app player to play content from a 
third-party platform like YouTube or Facebook, information like your IP 
address and technical information showing that the request comes from a 
WhatsApp app, may be provided to the provider of such service or 
products. Please note that when you use third-party services or other 
Meta Company Products, their own terms and privacy policies will govern 
your use of those services and products.
     Third-Party Service Providers. We work with third-party service 
providers to help us provide our Services.
 
     When we share information with third-party service providers in 
this capacity, we require them to use your information on our behalf in 
accordance with our instructions and terms.
 
     We work with the following different types of third-party service 
providers:
         telecommunications technology providers to send you SMS 
messages, or call you, to verify your account. To be able to provide 
these services, these providers receive Your Account Information (phone 
number) and Account Access Information (verification codes to enable you 
to verify a new phone number or device connected to your account). The 
providers we currently use are located in Sweden, the Netherlands, the 
UK and the United States.
         a content safety technology service provider that helps us to 
maintain the safety and integrity of the Services by detecting and 
helping us to prioritise harmful material for our reviewers to assess. 
To provide these services, this provider receives certain images from 
User Reports (images), Your Account Information (profile picture) and 
Your Group Information (group profile picture). The provider we 
currently use is located in the United States.
         a location data provider to enable you to share your location 
or a nearby place with other WhatsApp users. To be able to provide these 
services, this provider receives Precise Location Information (your 
current location and other locations you choose on the map). The 
provider we currently use is located in the United States.
 
Please also see the How We Work With Other Meta Companies and Working 
with Authorities, Advisors and Industry Partners sections for further 
information we share.
 
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How We Work With Other Meta Companies
 
WhatsApp is one of the Meta Companies. The Meta Companies provide 
technology products and services for both individuals and businesses.
 
We work with other Meta Companies that act as our service providers and 
help us provide and improve our Services. When Meta Companies act as our 
service providers, we require them to use your information on our behalf 
in accordance with our instructions and terms.
 
     We work with Meta Companies in the United States that assist us 
with the operation of our Services. To receive these services we share 
Information We Collect.
     We work with Meta Companies and other companies which are owned by 
Meta in the United States and Spain that provide data hosting and 
infrastructure services, including the use of data centers together with 
related services and equipment which are used to operate the Services. 
We share the Information We Collect with these companies.
     We work with Meta Companies in the UK, Israel and the United States 
that provide us with business analytics services so that we can learn 
for example how many unique users we have compared to other services 
offered by the Meta Companies. We share Your Account Information (phone 
number), Device and Connection Information (identifiers associated with 
the same device or account, hardware model, operating system information 
and app versions, mobile country code and network code), User Choices 
(records about Terms acceptance, and user settings) and Usage 
Information (when you last used WhatsApp and the date you first 
registered your account, time of activities).
     We work with a Meta Company in the United States that provides 
services to:
         help carry out two factor authentication; and
         provide technical engineering support and trouble-shooting in 
relation to our interaction with mobile phone networks.
     We share Your Account Information (phone number) and Account Access 
Information (verification code) in order to obtain this service.
     We work with other Meta Companies in:
         the United States and Spain that provide us with operational, 
administrative and customer support services to help us:
             operate, improve, and develop the Services;
             develop, fix and customise the Services;
             respond to user/non-user queries and provide support 
relating to the queries;
             ensure accounts are kept safe and secure;
             with contract administration, project management, planning 
and any related purposes; and
             carry out customer satisfaction surveys.
         the UK, United States and Spain, that provide us with:
             product research and testing (features of) services to help 
us improve our Services; and
             troubleshoot technical issues, and ensure the Services 
operate smoothly.
         the UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany and United States, that provide 
us with legal advice and legal support services to help us:
             in litigation and other dispute processes;
             regulatory investigations and other statutory processes;
             with handling complaints and/or requests from data subjects;
             with responding to government and other legal requests;
             with our legal administration;
             with the management of privacy-related queries, including 
development of tooling and record repositories; and
             with other legal support as requested from time to time.
         the United States and Singapore, that provide us with 
assistance when we respond pursuant to applicable law or regulations, to 
legal requests and government requests, including in emergency 
situations, with:
             disclosing relevant personal information to law 
enforcement, government authorities, regulators or others; and
             disclosing personal information to third parties in the 
context of civil legal proceedings.
         the United States, UK and Spain, that provide administrative 
services to help us with our efforts to ensure that the Services are 
safe and secure by:
             investigating any suspicious activities or violations of 
our policies; and
             removing violating accounts.
         Ireland, the United States and Singapore, that provide us with 
services to help us to guard against violations of our intellectual 
property by:
             reviewing accounts for violation of WhatsApp policies;
             assisting with enforcement against those accounts;
             providing periodic reports to us on individual accounts 
that have been reviewed and enforced upon; and
             escalating any cases requiring legal review to us.
     For receiving the services listed above and depending on the 
service that is provided, we share the Information We Collect.
 
If you would like further details about the Meta Companies that 
currently act as our service providers, please click here.
 
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How and Why We Process Your Information and Our Legal Basis For Processing
 
Under applicable data protection law in the European Region (such as the 
GDPR), companies must have a legal basis to process information. We rely 
on different legal bases to process your information for the various 
purposes described in this Privacy Policy.
 
For each legal basis below, we describe the purposes of our processing 
(why we process your information) and our processing operations (how we 
process your information to achieve each purpose). We also list the 
categories of your information that we process for each purpose.
 
You also have particular rights available to you depending on which 
legal basis we use, and we've explained these below. You should know 
that no matter what legal basis applies, you always have the right to 
request access to, rectification of, and erasure of your information. To 
exercise your rights, see the How To Exercise Your Rights section.
 
Information that we process to convey your messages or calls (which 
includes information like your phone number, the time and date you make 
a call or send a message, or the duration of your calls) is subject to 
and handled in accordance with the specific rules and requirements under 
the EU Directive 2002/58/EC, where applicable.
 
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Processing necessary to perform our contract with you
 
We process information as necessary to conclude and perform our contract 
with you, our Terms. The categories of information used and why and how 
they are processed is set out below:
 
Why And How We Process Your Information
 
 
Information Categories Used
 
To operate, provide, improve, customise, and support our Services as 
described in the About Our Services section of our Terms which includes 
providing ways for you to connect and communicate with other WhatsApp 
users including businesses, WhatsApp:
 
Assists you in creating and managing your WhatsApp account by:
 
     collecting and verifying your phone number by sending you a 
verification code via SMS or by calling you.
     checking the operating system and other features of your device to 
set up WhatsApp correctly on your device, and running security checks to 
make sure you don’t already have an account or a phone number that is 
banned from WhatsApp.
     recording your User Choices, including the Terms you accepted, your 
privacy settings and the users you’ve blocked.
     facilitating you adding additional Account Information such as a 
profile picture, “about” information which is displayed to people who 
have your phone number, in line with your privacy settings.
     changing the phone number associated with your WhatsApp account 
when you update it.
     in order to maintain security, limit data retention and protect 
your privacy, checking for activity every 30 days and deleting your 
account where your phone has not been online for 120 days (in general). 
Learn more in our Help Center here.
     deleting your account, at your request (see how to delete your 
account on your iPhone and on your Android device) or in accordance with 
our Terms. We may take steps to ban your account if there is a breach of 
our Terms, for example a breach of our "Acceptable Use of Our Services" 
terms.
     enabling you to re-register your account when it has been 
deactivated or locked.
 
 
 
     Your Account Information
     Your Connections
     Account Access Information
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
     User Choices
     Authentication Information
 
Facilitates you using and managing your WhatsApp account across multiple 
devices by:
 
     linking a new device to your account and registering it on our 
servers so that you can use WhatsApp on additional devices.
     syncing Your Account Information and User Choices across your 
devices by sending an update to other devices linked to your account.
     sending an end-to-end encrypted copy of your chat history to your 
new companion device when you sync your chats (we temporarily store this 
encrypted copy to complete the sync).
 
 
 
For linking a device to your account:
 
     Your Account Information
     Device and Connection Information
     Authentication Information
 
For syncing your Account Information and User Choices across your devices:
 
     Your Account Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     User Choices
 
For syncing your chat history:
 
     Your Account Information
     User Content (your messages, images, audio and videos are 
end-to-end encrypted)
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     Authentication Information
 
To send and receive end-to-end encrypted messages and broadcast your 
Status, we:
 
     enable you to reply to, forward and delete messages, or to send 
different types of messages such as voice messages, “View Once” or 
disappearing messages.
     if the recipient’s device is online on WhatsApp, deliver messages 
directly to their device. If your device or the recipient’s device is 
offline, we store the encrypted message for up to 30 days as we attempt 
to deliver the message and send a push notification to the device.
     show when you are online or indicate activity to recipients in a 
chat, such as displaying your ‘last seen’ to recipients according to 
your User Choices.
     enable you to search the web for images to use as a group profile 
picture or to share videos from third-party services such as YouTube. 
Where that link is a video, we display a preview and allow the recipient 
to view it within the chat.
     allow you to broadcast your Status updates with contacts of your 
choice. Status updates disappear after 24 hours.
     take precautions to ensure your messages are conveyed correctly.
     optimise the sending of media files by storing them temporarily for 
up to 30 days in encrypted form on our servers to aid in more efficient 
delivery.
     enable you and third parties, like businesses, to communicate and 
interact with each other using our services such as catalogs for 
businesses on WhatsApp where you can browse products and services and 
place orders.
     use cookies to operate and provide our web-based Services.
 
 
 
To send and receive end-to-end encrypted messages and to broadcast your 
Status:
 
     Your Account Information
     User Content (your messages, images, audio, video, documents and 
files are end-to-end encrypted, as is the Status you share)
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     Cookies
     User Choices
     Authentication Information
 
For showing your presence (in one-to-one chats) and last seen:
 
     Your Connections
     Usage Information (online or offline status)
     User Choices
 
For showing your activity indicators:
 
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Usage Information (whether you are typing or pausing typing, or 
recording a voice note)
 
For sharing your Status:
 
     User Content (Status is end-to-end encrypted)
     Your Connections
     User Choices
 
To generally operate, provide and improve our Services, we:
 
     analyse log information to resolve crashes and user issues.
     collect information for troubleshooting, diagnostics and debugging.
     collect and aggregate metrics (such as messaging volume and 
latencies) to monitor service performance, reliability, and efficiency, 
so we can ensure and optimise service quality.
     test out new features to see if they work, undertake 
experimentation to evaluate the impact of new features and track 
adoption metrics (e.g. percentage of users updating their Status).
     collect and aggregate activity and system events to understand at 
coarse breakdowns like country level or application version level how 
and how often the service is being used.
 
 
 
To generally operate, provide and improve our Services:
 
     Your Account Information
     Your Group Information
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
 
For making, receiving, joining or leaving voice and video calls, we:
 
     establish an end-to-end encrypted connection for audio/video 
information between you and the other call participant (or participants 
if you are in a group call) after checking the participant’s privacy 
settings to see if they have blocked you.
     send you a push notification if you are receiving or have missed a 
call.
     notify participants in a group call when:
         another user has been invited but has not accepted the call,
         another user starts to ring,
         another user joins the call,
         a call participant has left, and
         the call is over.
 
When you change your in-app settings or take certain actions in a call, 
we let the other call participant(s) know the following:
 
     whether your video is on or off.
     when you invite other users to switch from an audio to a video call 
(or vice versa).
     when you have not heard from the other call participant(s).
     when you turn mute on or off.
     when your battery is below 5% and not charging.
     when you get an incoming call that interrupts your ongoing call on 
WhatsApp.
 
To optimise call quality, we:
 
     swap to alternative networks interfaces where your existing 
connection is limited, and collect aggregated call metrics (for iOS only).
     track metrics such as failed calls, number of calls ended due to 
disconnection and measure network link conditions to identify and 
resolve call quality issues.
     store performance information on your device after the call, so it 
is easier to set up a call with the same user(s) again.
     collect metrics about calls and aggregate them to optimize call 
quality.
     back up your data usage and time spent on a call.
     exchange network and other information during a call to adjust 
audio, video and network quality.
 
 
 
For making, receiving, joining or leaving voice and video calls:
 
     Your Account Information
     User Content
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
     User Choices
     Authentication Information
 
For notifying call participants about changes during a call:
 
     Device and Connection Information
 
For optimising call quality:
 
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
 
To help you discover if your contacts are WhatsApp users when you choose 
to sync your device’s address book using contact upload, we:
 
     regularly identify other WhatsApp users in your address book, add 
them to your WhatsApp contact list and store cryptographic hash values 
of the phone numbers of your contacts who are not WhatsApp users, so we 
can quickly update your WhatsApp contacts if those contacts sign-up to 
WhatsApp at a later date. Learn more here.
     remove contacts from your WhatsApp contact list if one of your 
contacts no longer has an account.
     at your request, block phone numbers of other users to prevent them 
contacting you on WhatsApp.
 
 
 
To enable you to use contact upload:
 
     Your Account Information
     Your Connections
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     User Choices
 
To allow you to create and connect in Groups to communicate with 
multiple contacts at the same time, we:
 
     check that phone numbers you are trying to add to a group are 
WhatsApp users and check to ensure that their admission to the group is 
in line with their privacy settings.
     check to ensure that the group name and optional group description 
meets WhatsApp requirements.
     store information about the group and its participant users 
(including any pending participant users) to ensure that the appropriate 
privileges are applied and assign the creator of the group as an admin 
so that they can control and personalise the group’s information and 
settings.
     when a group is active, log when you send invites to new group 
participants and expire non-accepted invitations within a set period.
     notify participants in the group of certain key changes to the 
group, such as changes to the group name, description or profile picture.
     temporarily store information to protect you from being re-added to 
groups you chose to leave and store the phone numbers of participants 
who are banned from groups to ensure that they cannot rejoin. This 
information is also used to help identify any suspicious users or 
abusive behaviour where there is a high turnover of participants.
     appoint a new random group admin when the current admin (or admins) 
leave the group/delete their account.
     delete a group when its last member leaves.
 
 
 
For creating a group:
 
     Your Account Information
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     User Choices
     Authentication Information
 
For administering active groups:
 
     Your Account Information
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     User Choices
     Authentication Information
 
Assists you to create backups of your chat history (and media within the 
chat history), when you request it by:
 
     enabling you to upload a backup of your chat history to a 
third-party cloud-based service (like Google Drive or iCloud).
     end-to-end encrypt your chat history with a randomly generated 
encryption key or password you create. You can upload these encrypted 
backups of your chat history to a third-party cloud-based service (like 
Google Drive or iCloud).
     using an encryption key or your password to retrieve an encryption 
key to decrypt your backed-up chat history.
 
 
 
For allowing you to create, access and restore backups and encrypted 
backups:
 
     Your Account Information
     Authentication Information (authenticating an encryption key or 
password)
 
To ensure the safety, security, and integrity of our Services. We use 
information we have and apply automated data processing techniques and, 
in some instances, conduct manual (human) review to:
 
     verify accounts on an ongoing basis, and check that user sign-ups 
are genuine.
     log events and aggregated counts about Group and user actions on 
our Services (like the number of groups joined) and related sequences 
like patterns in registration and repetitive or identical User Reports 
to identify and investigate suspicious users, abusive behaviour or where 
a fake WhatsApp app or an imitation of our Services is being used.
     investigate and address violations of our Terms. For example, we 
may ban your account when we learn that you are engaged in infringing 
activities.
     detect, prevent and combat harmful or unlawful behaviour, such as 
to combat scraping by bad actors at scale, to detect and prevent spam, 
and bad experiences.
     collect app verification information from anti-abuse services to 
aid our integrity-related efforts.
 
 
 
To ensure the safety, security and integrity of our Services:
 
     Your Account Information
     User Content (if provided by a user)
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Customer Support Information and Other Communications
     Account Access Information
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
     Cookies
     User Choices
     Authentication Information
     Information Others Provide About You
     User Reports
     Businesses on WhatsApp
     Third-Party Services
 
Transfer, store or process your information outside the European 
Economic Area. As the WhatsApp service operates globally, with users and 
businesses around the world, we need to share information we collect 
globally, both internally within the Meta Companies and where the data 
centers we rely on are located and externally with our Third-Party 
Service Providers. We carry out necessary transfers outside the European 
Economic Area, including to the United States and other countries to:
 
     operate and provide our Services. We also allow you to share 
information and connect with your family and friends around the globe; and
     allow us to fix, analyse and improve our Services.
 
For more information, see Transferring information outside the EEA as 
part of Our Global Operations section below.
 
 
To operate and provide our Services:
 
     Your Account Information
     User Content
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Customer Support Information and Other Communications
     Account Access Information
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
     Cookies
     User Choices
     Authentication Information
     Information Others Provide About You
     User Reports
     Businesses on WhatsApp
     Third-Party Services
 
Communicate with you on Services-related issues, we:
 
     identify relevant Service-related notifications for you, send them 
to you on WhatsApp and keep a log when you have received the 
notification. For example, when our Terms are updated we’ll provide a 
notification about the update.
 
 
 
For sending you notifications or updates about our Services:
 
     Your Account Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information (details of the notifications 
you have previously received)
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
 
Provide customer support by:
 
     processing requests for support and / or searches you make within 
the WhatsApp Help Center, in the app or via the WhatsApp website.
     responding when you request our help such as assisting with your 
account login or verification process.
 
 
 
For providing you with customer support:
 
     Your Account Information
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Customer Support Information and Other Communications
     Account Access Information
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
     Cookies
 
When we process information you provide to us as necessary to perform 
our contractual relationship with you, under applicable data protection 
laws you have the right to port it. To exercise your rights, visit the 
How To Exercise Your Rights section of this Privacy Policy.
 
Back to top
 
The other legal bases we rely on when processing your information and 
the circumstances in which we rely on them are set out below:
Your Consent
 
We process information for the purposes described below when you have 
given us your consent to enable particular product features in your 
device-based settings. The categories of information used and why and 
how it’s processed are set out below:
 
Why And How We Process Your Information
 
 
Information Categories Used
 
For collecting information through the device-based settings which you 
have enabled, for example:
 
     sharing your device’s Precise Location Information if you choose to 
use our location-related features. You can share your current location 
with, or send your live location to your contacts or view a nearby place 
on your map. When your live location is being shared, the live location 
control in your privacy settings shows which chats your live location is 
being shared in. Precise Location Information which you share in your 
chats is end-to-end encrypted which means that it cannot be seen by 
WhatsApp.
     accessing your camera and / or photo gallery if you choose to share 
photos or media with your WhatsApp contacts. Photos and media that you 
share in your personal chats are end-to-end encrypted.
 
 
 
     User Content
 
When we process your information based on your consent, you have the 
right to withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the 
lawfulness of processing based on such consent before the consent is 
withdrawn. To exercise your rights, visit your device-based settings, 
your in-app settings like your live location control, and the How To 
Exercise Your Rights section of this Privacy Policy.
 
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Compliance With A Legal Obligation
 
We process information to comply with a legal obligation including, for 
example, to access, preserve or disclose certain information if there is 
a valid legal request. Examples of Irish and EU laws that could give 
rise to a legal obligation requiring us to process information are set 
out below. New laws may be enacted or other obligations may become 
binding on our processing and we will update the list of laws from time 
to time.
 
Why And How We Process Your Information
 
 
Information Categories Used
 
The actual information used depends on the specific legal obligation, 
but could include any of the following:
 
For processing information when we comply with a legal obligation 
including, for example, to access, preserve or disclose certain 
information if there is a valid legal request from a regulator, law 
enforcement or others. For example, a search warrant or production order 
from Irish law enforcement to provide information in relation to an 
investigation, such as your profile picture or IP address.
 
Examples of Irish and EU laws enforceable in Ireland are laws that could 
give rise to an obligation requiring us to process information we hold 
about you are:
 
     Civil and commercial matters: where we are in receipt of a court 
order to disclose information for the purposes of court proceedings, 
such as under Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 on jurisdiction and the 
recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.
     Criminal matters: to comply with requests from Irish law 
enforcement to provide data in relation to an investigation, such as 
under Section 10 of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 
1997 as amended by 6(1)(a) of the Criminal Justice Act 2006 or to take 
steps to report information to law enforcement where required.
     Consumer matters: to comply with our obligations under consumer law 
such as the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 such as where 
the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission requests 
information.
     Corporate and taxation matters: to comply with our obligations 
under companies legislation and tax law such as the Companies Act 2014 
such as where the Irish Revenue requests information.
     Regulatory matters: to comply with our obligations to engage with 
regulators, such as the Data Protection Commission under the General 
Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
 
See here for the current list of laws which are enforceable in Ireland 
that give rise to a legal obligation for WhatsApp which results in the 
processing of information. New laws may be enacted or other obligations 
may become binding on our processing of your information which may 
require us to process your information and we will update this list from 
time to time.
 
 
     Your Account Information
     User Content (if provided by a user)
     Account Access Information
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Customer Support Information and Other Communications
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
     User Reports
     User Choices
     Cookies
     Information Others Provide About You
     Businesses on WhatsApp
     Third-Party Services
 
 
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Protection Of Your Vital Interests Or Those Of Another Person
 
Why And How We Process Your Information
 
 
Information Categories Used
 
The actual information used depends on the factual circumstances, but 
could include any of the following:
 
For protecting your vital interests or those of another person.
 
We apply automated processing techniques and conduct manual (human) 
review. We share information with law enforcement and others, in 
circumstances where someone’s vital interests require protection, such 
as in the case of emergencies. These vital interests include protection 
of your or someone else’s life, physical or mental health, wellbeing or 
integrity or that of others.
 
In protecting such vital interests we aim to combat harmful conduct and 
promote safety, integrity and security. For example, we investigate 
reports of harmful conduct and take appropriate action, such as sharing 
information with relevant authorities, where there is a risk of imminent 
harmful conduct such as an attack or where a person’s safety is at risk. 
We also compare profile pictures, group pictures and reported images 
against a database of known hashed child sexual abuse material (CSAM) 
and use a combination of automated processing techniques and human 
review to detect previously unknown CSAM in these images. If we detect 
apparent CSAM, we report it to the National Center for Missing & 
Exploited Children (learn more about how we work to help fight child 
exploitation here).
 
 
     Your Account Information
     User Content (if provided by a user)
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Customer Support Information and Other Communications
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
     Cookies
     User Choices
     Information Others Provide About You
     User Reports
     Businesses on WhatsApp
     Third-Party Services
 
 
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Legitimate Interests
 
We rely on our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a 
third-party, such as our users, where they are not outweighed by your 
interests or fundamental rights and freedoms ("legitimate interests"):
 
Why And How We Process Your Information
 
 
Legitimate Interests Relied On
 
 
Information Categories Used
 
Business intelligence and analytics:
 
     we count users and events for reporting to identify how many users 
WhatsApp has (and similar metrics) so we can share these metrics with 
affiliates, regulators and the public. This includes metrics like how 
many unique users WhatsApp has across the Meta Companies by establishing 
which of our users don't use other Meta apps.
     validate metrics to understand how and how often our Services are 
used, and how this compares to usage across the Meta Companies, in order 
to inform and improve product direction and development and forecast 
future adoption of the service or features.
 
 
 
     In our interest to measure the use of our Services and count the 
people who interact with the WhatsApp services in order to inform and 
improve product direction and development and to enable provision of 
accurate and reliable reporting.
 
 
 
Business intelligence and analytics:
 
     Your Account Information
     Your Group Information
     Customer Support Information and Other Communications
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
     User Choices
 
We preserve and share information with others including law enforcement 
and to respond to legal requests.
 
This includes responding to legal requests where we are not compelled by 
applicable law but have a good faith belief it is required by law in the 
relevant jurisdiction or sharing information with law enforcement or 
industry partners/peers such as other online platforms and technology 
companies to combat abusive or illegal behaviour. For example, we 
preserve a snapshot of user information when requested by law 
enforcement where necessary for the purposes of an investigation.
 
We may also report illegal or infringing content to law enforcement, 
government or other authorities.
 
 
     It is in our interest and in the interest of WhatsApp users to 
prevent and address fraud, unauthorised use of WhatsApp, violations of 
our Terms and policies, or other harmful or illegal activity.
     It is in our interest to protect ourselves (including our rights, 
personnel, property or products), our users or others, including as part 
of investigations or regulatory inquiries; or to prevent death or 
imminent bodily harm.
     The general public and industry partners/peers such as other online 
platforms and technology companies have a legitimate interest in having 
abusive or illegal behaviour investigated and combated.
 
 
 
The actual information used depends on the factual circumstances, but 
could include any of the following:
 
     Your Account Information
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Customer Support Information and Other Communications
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     Usage Information
     General Location Information
     User Reports
 
We preserve and share information when we seek legal advice or seek to 
protect ourselves in the context of litigation and other disputes. This 
includes matters such as violations of our Terms and policies.
 
 
     It is in our interest and in the interest of WhatsApp users to 
respond to complaints, prevent and address fraud, unauthorised use of 
WhatsApp, violations of our Terms and policies, or other harmful or 
illegal activity.
     It is in our interest to seek legal advice and protect ourselves 
(including our rights, personnel, property or products), our users or 
others, including as part of investigations or regulatory inquiries and 
litigation or other disputes.
 
 
 
The actual information used depends on the factual circumstances, but 
could include any of the following:
 
     Your Account Information
     User Content (if provided by a user)
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Customer Support Information and Other Communications
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     Cookies
     User Choices
     Information Others Provide About You
     User Reports
     Businesses on WhatsApp
     Third-Party Services
 
To promote safety, integrity and security outside of the performance of 
our contract with you, we:
 
     log User Reports and patterns of account compromises to understand 
the techniques being used by the bad actors that interfere with the 
Services.
     analyse users’ Device and Connection Information to identify and 
investigate patterns of suspicious behaviour or violations of our 
policies and Terms.
 
 
 
     It is in our interest and in the interest of WhatsApp users to 
secure WhatsApp systems and fight spam, threats, abuse, or infringement 
activities and promote safety and security on the Services. It is also 
in our interest to ensure our Services are used in accordance with the 
Terms.
 
 
 
For ensuring the safety, security and integrity of our Services:
 
     Your Account Information
     Your Connections
     Your Group Information
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     User Reports
 
To improve the WhatsApp customer support service, we:
 
     track information about your interactions with our customer support 
team to understand if issues are being resolved in a timely manner and 
whether the information provided in our FAQs are helpful.
     run quality assurance checks on our interactions with our customers
     request and review information you provide in customer satisfaction 
feedback surveys.
     log search queries in our Help Center to build an index of common 
search queries to keep our help centre up to date with relevant content.
 
 
 
     It is in our interest and in the interest of WhatsApp users to 
continuously improve and develop the customer support we provide.
 
 
 
To improve the WhatsApp customer support service:
 
     Your Account Information
     Customer Support Information and Other Communications
     Usage Information
     Log and Troubleshooting Information
     Device and Connection Information
     General Location Information
     Cookies
     User Reports
 
You have the right to object to, and seek restriction of, this 
processing. To exercise your rights, visit the How To Exercise Your 
Rights section of this Privacy Policy
 
We still do not allow third-party banner ads on our Services. We have no 
intention to introduce them, but if we ever do, we will update this 
Privacy Policy.
 
Back to top
How To Exercise Your Rights
 
Under applicable data protection law, you have the right to access, 
rectify, port, and erase your information, as well as the right to 
restrict and object to certain processing of your information.
 
This includes the right to object to our processing of your information 
for direct marketing and the right to object to our processing of your 
information where we are pursuing our legitimate interests or those of a 
third-party. We will consider several factors when assessing an 
objection including: your reasonable expectations; the benefits and 
risks to you, us, other users, third parties; and other available means 
to achieve the same purpose that may be less invasive and do not require 
disproportionate effort. Your objection will be upheld, and we will 
cease processing your information, unless the processing is based on 
compelling legitimate grounds or is needed for legal reasons.
 
You can object to our processing of your information and learn more 
about your options to restrict the way we use your information by going 
here. If we use your information for direct marketing, you can always 
object and opt out of future direct marketing messages using the 
unsubscribe link in such communications, or by using our in-app "block" 
feature.
 
You can access or port your information using our in-app Request Account 
Info feature (available under Settings > Account). You can access tools 
to rectify, update, and delete your information directly in-app as 
described in the Retention of Your Information section.
 
When we process information you provide to us based on your consent, you 
have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting 
the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. To 
withdraw your consent, visit your device-based settings or in-app settings.
 
You have the right to lodge a complaint with WhatsApp's lead supervisory 
authority under the GDPR, the Irish Data Protection Commission, or any 
other competent data protection supervisory authority.
 
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Retention of Your Information
 
We store information for as long as necessary for the purposes 
identified in this Privacy Policy, including to provide our Services, or 
for other legitimate purposes, such as complying with legal obligations, 
enforcing and preventing violations of our Terms, to fight spam, or 
protecting or defending our rights, property and users. The storage 
periods are determined on a case-by-case basis that depends on the 
following factors:
 
     The nature of the information and why it is collected and 
processed. The length of time we will keep your information will 
generally be determined by how long we need that information to provide 
you with our Services, including any optional features you use and to 
provide customer support.
 
     For example:
         As described above, we require certain of Your Account 
Information to deliver our Services. We need to keep it for the lifetime 
of your account so that we can maintain your account.
         We keep your User Choices for the lifetime of your account.
         We keep Authentication Information for the lifetime of your 
account.
         We only need to keep other information as long as necessary to 
provide optional features to you, such as Your Connections as long as 
you use contact upload.
         We keep information collected using Cookies for 90 days.
         We generally keep customer support communications for 30 days 
after they have been dealt with or 90 days after we receive them, 
whichever is sooner.
         We generally keep User Reports for 90 days.
     In certain cases, we need to keep your information for longer for 
legal reasons as described under the Legal Reasons section below.
     Legal Reasons. In certain cases, we also keep your information for 
legal reasons, including after your account has been deleted.
 
     We keep your information:
         To respond to a legal request or to comply with applicable law 
when we have a legal obligation to retain information. For example, if 
we receive a valid legal request, such as a preservation order or search 
warrant, related to your account, we preserve your information after you 
delete your account.
         To deal with and resolve requests and complaints. For example, 
we generally retain correspondence relating to data subject requests 
under GDPR for a year, in case those requests are not resolved and this 
correspondence is required in order to handle any resulting complaints. 
In such cases, the correspondence is then retained while those 
complaints are being resolved.
         For litigation or regulatory matters. For example, we preserve 
your information where it is reasonably necessary for reasons related to 
a legal claim or complaint, such as where we are subject to a regulatory 
investigation or we need to defend ourselves in legal proceedings about 
a claim related to your information or respond to a regulator in 
relation to a complaint made by you or someone else.
         Issues relating to the safety, security and integrity of our 
Services and to protect rights, property and users. For example, we keep 
information where it is necessary to investigate misuse of our Services, 
such as spam and other bad experiences. If we disable an account for 
violating our Terms, we also preserve information about that user for 
safety, security and integrity purposes.
 
The actual information that we keep and how long we keep it for depends 
on the nature of the reason in question.
 
     Operational Retention Needs. We need to store information in 
certain cases for operational needs. For example, if a message cannot be 
delivered immediately, we keep it in encrypted form on our servers for 
up to 30 days as we try to deliver it. We also store information where 
necessary for troubleshooting and debugging issues with the Services. We 
keep the information that we store for this purpose for up to 90 days, 
provided longer storage is not necessary for investigating and resolving 
a specific issue, or for legal reasons.
     Messaging. We retain the information that we process to convey your 
messages or calls (which includes information like your phone number, 
the time and date you make a call or send a message, or the duration of 
your calls) in accordance with the specific rules and requirements under 
the EU Directive 2002/58/EC, where applicable, as long as it is needed 
for transmitting the communication, operating our Services, ensuring the 
safety and security of our Services, or to comply with legal obligations 
under applicable law. When we do not need the information for any of 
these purposes anymore, we delete or anonymise it.
 
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Deleting Your Information
 
What Happens To Your Information When Your Account Is Deleted? When you 
delete your WhatsApp account or when it is deleted as a result of 
inactivity (see About inactive account deletion for information on 
inactive accounts), we delete the information we have about you, apart 
from the information listed below which we retain in limited circumstances.
 
Deleted Information. Your Account Information and any undelivered 
messages to you are deleted from our servers. You will be removed from 
all WhatsApp groups. Note that for technical reasons it takes up to 90 
days from the beginning of the deletion process to delete or de-identify 
your WhatsApp information. Copies of your information may also remain 
after the 90 days for a limited time in the backup storage that we use 
to recover lost information in the event of a disaster, software error, 
or other information loss event.
 
Information We Retain After Your Account is Deleted.
 
     If we are analysing or investigating a security incident, in order 
to maintain the security of our Services, we need to retain Log and 
Troubleshooting Information associated with the incident that we are 
reviewing past the normal 90 day deletion period.
     Copies of certain log records remain in our database but are 
disassociated from personal identifiers which are used for example to 
measure performance, reliability and efficiency and to operate and 
improve our Services.
         Your account initially was linked to these records by a 
randomly generated identifier. To disassociate this information when 
your account is deleted, we delete the link between this identifier and 
your account as part of the account deletion process.
     Copies of your information may also be retained for legal reasons 
after you delete your account in the circumstances described. The 
information that may be retained and length of time we need to retain it 
will depend on the specific legal reason we need to retain it for.
 
For more information on how long we store information, see Retention of 
Your Information.
 
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Managing Your Information
 
If you would like to manage, change, limit, or delete your information, 
you can do that through the following tools:
 
     Settings. You can change your Settings to manage certain 
information available to other users. You can manage your contacts, 
groups, and broadcast lists, or use our "block" feature to manage who 
you communicate with on our Services.
     Changing Your Mobile Phone Number, Profile Name And Picture, And 
"About" Information. If you change your mobile phone number you must 
update it using our in-app change number feature and transfer your 
account to your new mobile phone number. You can also change your 
profile name, profile picture, and "about" information at any time.
     Deleting Your WhatsApp Account. You can delete your WhatsApp 
account at any time using our in-app delete my account feature in your 
in-app settings. Once you initiate the deletion process for your 
account, that account can no longer be used (i.e. you cannot log in or 
re-register or access any content (including message history) as it will 
be deleted). See Deleting Your Information section for more detail on 
what happens to your information when you delete your account.
 
Be mindful that if you only delete WhatsApp from your device without 
selecting the in-app delete my account option in your in-app settings, 
the Information We Collect will be stored on our servers for a longer 
period. WhatsApp accounts are generally deleted after 120 days of 
inactivity. Users are not alerted when this occurs. See our help centre 
article About inactive account deletion for more information.
 
Please remember that when your account is deleted, it does not affect 
your information related to the groups you created (such as group 
names), or the information other users have relating to you, such as 
their copy of the messages you sent them.
 
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Working With Authorities, Advisors And Industry Partners
 
We access and share your information described in the Information We 
Collect section, including sharing with regulators, law enforcement, 
other government agencies, industry partners/peers such as other online 
platforms and technology companies, our advisors such as external 
lawyers who act for us, and others in accordance with the How and Why We 
Process Your Information and Our Legal Basis for Processing section if 
we have a good-faith belief that it is necessary to:
 
     respond pursuant to applicable law or regulations, court orders, 
legal process, or government requests. For example, sharing with 
regulators, law enforcement, or other government agencies in response to 
legal requests or sharing with civil litigants pursuant to court orders;
     detect, investigate, prevent, or address fraud and other illegal 
activity or security and technical issues. For example, we access and 
share information with law enforcement, other government agencies, or 
industry partners such as other online platforms and technology 
companies to identify and prevent bad actors using our Services for 
illegal purposes; or
     protect the rights, property and safety of our users, WhatsApp, the 
Meta Companies, or others, including to prevent death or imminent bodily 
harm. For example, sharing with law enforcement, in emergency situations 
where we learn that a person’s life is at risk.
 
For more information on how we preserve your information for these 
purposes, please see the Retention of Your Information section.
 
The processing we carry out will depend on the circumstances. Further 
information on the different categories of information affected and the 
legal bases we rely on is set out in the How and Why We Process Your 
Information and Our Legal Basis for Processing section under the 
Processing necessary to perform our contract with you, Compliance with a 
Legal Obligation, Protection of Your Vital Interests or Those of Another 
Person and Legitimate Interests headings.
 
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Transferring information outside the EEA as part of Our Global Operations
 
Why is information transferred to countries outside of the European 
Economic Area and where?
 
WhatsApp shares information described in the Information We Collect 
section of this Privacy Policy globally, both internally within the Meta 
Companies, and externally with third parties in accordance with this 
Privacy Policy and our Terms. This includes places where the data 
centers we rely on are located, and where our other internal Meta 
Companies and external Third-Party Service Providers are located (which 
includes the United States). These transfers are necessary and essential 
to enable us to provide the Services set forth in our Terms and globally 
to operate and provide our Services which allow you to communicate with 
users and businesses on WhatsApp around the world.
 
How do we safeguard your information?
 
When information controlled by WhatsApp is transferred or transmitted 
to, or stored and processed in, the United States or other third 
countries outside of the European Economic Area, we rely on the 
following transfer mechanisms:
 
     Adequacy Decisions: We rely on decisions from the European 
Commission where they recognise that certain countries and territories 
outside of the European Economic Area ensure an adequate level of 
protection for personal information. These decisions are referred to as 
“adequacy decisions”. We transfer Your Account Information, Device and 
Connection Information, Usage Information and User Choices (see 
Information We Collect) from the European Economic Area to Israel in 
reliance on the European Commission’s adequacy decision for Israel.
     Standard Contractual Clauses: We utilise standard contractual 
clauses approved by the European Commission (and the equivalent standard 
contractual clauses for the UK, where appropriate) for transfers to the 
United States, the UK and Singapore. For example, WhatsApp uses Meta’s 
global infrastructure and data centers, which are located around the 
world including in the United States, to store the information described 
in the Information We Collect section of this Privacy Policy. For a copy 
of the standard contractual clauses, please see our SCC Help Centre article.
 
     While transfers to countries that don’t have an adequacy decision 
typically take place on the basis of the standard contractual clauses, 
in certain circumstances, transfers can also take place on the basis of 
exemptions provided for under data protection law. For example, sharing 
with law enforcement, in emergency situations where we learn that a 
person’s life is at risk.
 
     If you have any questions about the standard contractual clauses 
you can contact us.
 
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Updates to Our Privacy Policy
 
We may amend or update our Privacy Policy. We will provide you notice of 
amendments to this Privacy Policy, as appropriate, and update the “Last 
Modified” date at the top of this Privacy Policy. Please review our 
Privacy Policy from time to time.
 
Back to top
Contact Us
 
The Data Protection Officer for WhatsApp can be contacted here.
 
If you have questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us or 
write us here:
 
WhatsApp Ireland Limited
 
Attn: Privacy Policy
 
4 Grand Canal Square
 
Grand Canal Harbour
 
Dublin 2, Ireland


 *    European Electronic Communications Code Notice and Contract Summary
 
European Electronic Communications Code Notice
 
Last modified: November 23, 2021
 
The European Electronic Communications Code (Directive (EU) 2018/1972) 
(the "EECC") requires us to provide applicable users of WhatsApp 
Messenger, WhatsApp Business App, and WhatsApp Business API with the 
following information about the electronic communication service that we 
provide as part of our Services or Business Services. This information 
supplements the terms of service for those services. Applicable users 
include microenterprises or small enterprises or not-for-profit 
organisations, unless they have explicitly agreed to waive all or parts 
of those provisions. For the purposes of your documentation, future 
reference and unchanged reproduction, you may download or print a copy 
of this document.
Quality Of Service
 
We work hard to provide the best service we can. However we cannot 
guarantee any minimum levels of quality of service and make no 
guarantees that our Services or Business Services will always function 
without disruptions, delay or errors. A number of factors beyond 
WhatsApp's control may also impact your experience in using our Services 
or Business Services and may result in the disruption of your 
communication with other users including but not limited to: your local 
network, firewall, your internet service provider, the public internet, 
and power supply.
Security
 
We work to protect the safety, security, and integrity of WhatsApp by 
appropriately dealing with abusive people and activity violating our 
terms of service. We work to prohibit misuse of our Services and 
Business Services including harmful conduct towards others. We operate 
systems to improve our ability to detect incidents, threats or 
vulnerabilities that may harm the security of our Services and Business 
Services. If we learn of activity like this, we will take appropriate 
action such as removing that activity or contacting law enforcement.
Price
 
We do not charge for using the WhatsApp Messenger or the WhatsApp 
Business App, unless we agree otherwise with you. If you use the 
WhatsApp Business API a charge may apply, and is specified in the 
agreement between you and Facebook. All users of our Services and 
Business Services are responsible for carrier data plans, Internet 
access fees, and other fees and taxes associated with use of our 
Services or Business Services.
Duration, Renewal And Termination
 
WhatsApp Messenger and WhatsApp Business App users can terminate their 
relationship with WhatsApp at any time for any reason by deleting their 
account. WhatsApp Business API users can terminate the use of Business 
Services in accordance with the terms of their agreement with Facebook. 
For all users, we may modify, suspend or terminate your access to or use 
of our Services or Business Services for the reasons described in your 
terms of service, or the terms of your agreement with Facebook, as 
applicable.
Disputes
 
If you have a complaint about our Services or Business Services you can 
raise it by contacting us:
 
     For WhatsApp Messenger Support you can contact us from your phone 
by opening WhatsApp > Settings > Help > Contact Us. You can also contact 
us from any internet connected device at 
sup...@support.whatsapp.com
.
     For WhatsApp Business App Support you can contact us from your 
phone by opening WhatsApp > Settings > Help > Contact Us. WhatsApp 
Business App and WhatsApp Business API users can also contact us from 
any internet connected device at 
smb...@support.whatsapp.com
.
 
You can also contact us by writing to us here:
 
WhatsApp Ireland Limited
 
Attn: SERVICE COMPLAINTS
 
4 Grand Canal Square
 
Grand Canal Harbour
 
Dublin 2
 
Ireland
 
You can take legal action against us for any Claim that arises out of, 
or relates to, our Services or Business Services. For information on 
which governing law and venue applies to your Claim please refer to the 
Dispute Resolution section of the terms of service for WhatsApp 
Messenger. If you are a business user, please refer to the Governing Law 
and Venue section of the terms of service for WhatsApp Business App or 
WhatsApp Business API.
 
You may also be entitled to refer disputes in relation to matters 
covered by the EECC to an independent body for dispute resolution 
appointed in your country. A list of competent independent bodies for 
dispute resolution in EU countries and links to their websites is 
available at the European Union's Online Dispute Resolution Bodies web page.
Emergency Services
 
There are important differences between our Services or Business 
Services and your mobile phone and a fixed-line telephone and SMS 
services. Our Services and Business Services do not provide access to 
emergency services or emergency services providers, including the 
police, fire departments, or hospitals, or otherwise connect to public 
safety answering points. You should ensure you can contact your relevant 
emergency services providers through a mobile phone, a fixed-line 
telephone, or other service.
Accessibility Of Our Services
 
Our Services and Business Services are compatible with mobile and 
desktop accessibility functionality, such as using device voice commands 
and the ability to adjust various on-screen contrast, colors, and text 
size options. You can learn more about the features and technologies 
that help and any updates to our features in our Help Center articles.
Data You Provide
 
You must provide your mobile phone number and basic information 
(including a profile name of your choice) to create a WhatsApp account. 
If you don't provide us with this information, you will not be able to 
create an account to use WhatsApp. Business users must create a WhatsApp 
business account by providing accurate, current, and complete 
information, including the business user's valid legal business phone 
number, company name, and other information we require.
 
Our Privacy Policy includes information on the personal data that is 
collected in the context of providing the WhatsApp Messenger service. 
Users of the WhatsApp Business App or the WhatsApp Business API can find 
more information in our WhatsApp Business Terms of Service.
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------
 
WhatsApp from Facebook
WhatsApp Messenger App
WhatsApp Business App
WhatsApp Business API
Service Provider:
WhatsApp Ireland Limited
4 Grand Canal Square
Grand Canal Harbour
Dublin 2
Ireland
●
●
●
Contact:
For WhatsApp Messenger:
Via the in-app contact feature or at
sup...@support.whatsapp.com
 
For WhatsApp Business:
Via the in-app contact feature or at
smb...@support.whatsapp.com
 
For WhatsApp Business API:
smb...@support.whatsapp.com
 
Contract summary
This contract summary provides the main elements of this service offer 
as required by EU law. 1
It helps to make a comparison between service offers.
Complete information about the service is provided in other documents.
Services
We provide ways for you to communicate with other WhatsApp users, 
including businesses, through messages, voice and
video calls, sending images and video, showing your status, and sharing 
your location with others when you choose.
Price
We do not charge you for using the WhatsApp Messenger or WhatsApp 
Business App, unless we agree otherwise with you. If
you use the WhatsApp Business API, a charge may apply, and is specified 
in the agreement between you and Facebook. All
users of our Services and Business Services are responsible for carrier 
data plans, Internet access fees, and other fees and
taxes associated with use of our Services or Business Services.
Duration, Renewal and Termination
WhatsApp Messenger and WhatsApp Business users can terminate their 
relationship with WhatsApp at any time for any
reason by deleting their account. WhatsApp Business API users can 
terminate the use of Business Services in accordance
with the terms of their agreement with Facebook. For all users, we may 
modify, suspend, or terminate your access to or use of
our Services or Business Services for the reasons described in your 
terms of service or the terms of your agreement with
Facebook, as applicable.
Features For End-users With Disabilities
Our Services and Business Services are compatible with mobile and 
desktop accessibility functionality, such as using device
voice commands and the ability to adjust various on-screen contrast, 
colors, and text size options. You can learn more about
the features and technologies that help and any updates to our features 
in our Help Center articles.
Other Relevant Information
Last Modified: December 2, 2020
 
1) Article 102(3) of Directive (EU) 2018/1972 of the European Parliament 
and of the Council of 11 December 2018 establishing
the European Electronic Communications Code (OJ L 321, 17.12.2018, p. 36).


 *    Privacy Shield
 
WHATSAPP LLC, THE EU-U.S. PRIVACY SHIELD AND THE SWISS-U.S. PRIVACY SHIELD
 
Table of Contents
 
     Scope
     Access
     Third Parties
     Legal Requests
     Enforcement
     Questions and Disputes
 
WhatsApp LLC (“WhatsApp”) has certified to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield 
Framework and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework with the U.S. 
Department of Commerce regarding the collection and processing of 
personal data from our business partners in the European Union and 
Switzerland (“Partners”) in connection with the products and services 
described in the Scope section below and in our certification, although 
WhatsApp does not rely on the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework for 
transfers of personal data in light of the judgment of the Court of 
Justice of the EU in Case C-311/18. To learn more about the Privacy 
Shield program please visit 
www.privacyshield.gov
.
Scope
 
WhatsApp adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles for the following 
areas of our business (collectively the “Partner Services”):
 
     WhatsApp Business Products: WhatsApp creates apps, services, 
features, APIs, software, or website that enable businesses to interact 
with users of WhatsApp's products and services (“Business Products”). 
Partners (the data controllers) may submit personal information about 
their customers to WhatsApp using WhatsApp's Business Products. While 
Partners decide what information to submit, it typically includes things 
like customer phone numbers and other information under the Partner's 
control. For more information, customers may contact the relevant Partner.
     WhatsApp uses the personal data provided by Partners to provide 
Business Products in accordance with the terms applicable to the 
relevant Business Product and otherwise with the Partners' instructions. 
WhatsApp works with its Partners to ensure that individuals are offered 
appropriate choices in accordance with the Privacy Shield Principles.
 
Back to top
Access
 
Within the scope of our authorization to do so, and in accordance with 
our commitments under Privacy Shield, WhatsApp will work with its 
Partners to provide individuals access to personal data about them that 
WhatsApp holds on behalf of its Partners. WhatsApp will also take 
reasonable steps to enable individuals, either directly or in connection 
with the Partners, to correct, amend, or delete personal data that is 
demonstrated to be inaccurate.
 
Back to top
Third Parties
 
WhatsApp may transfer data within the Meta Companies and to third 
parties, including service providers and other partners. In accordance 
with the Privacy Shield Principles, WhatsApp is liable for any 
processing of personal data by such third parties that is inconsistent 
with the Privacy Shield Principles unless WhatsApp was not responsible 
for the event giving rise to any alleged damage.
 
Back to top
Legal Requests
 
Personal data that is transferred to us by our Partners may be subject 
to disclosure pursuant to legal requests or other judicial and 
government process, such as subpoenas, warrants, or orders. For more 
information, review the “Law and Protection” section of the WhatsApp 
Privacy Policy.
 
Back to top
Enforcement
 
WhatsApp's compliance with the Privacy Shield Principles is subject to 
the investigatory and enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade 
Commission.
 
Back to top
Questions and Disputes
 
Please contact us with any questions or concerns relating to our Privacy 
Shield certification. You have the option to resolve any applicable 
disputes you have with us in connection with our certification through 
TRUSTe, an alternative dispute resolution provider based in the United 
States. You can contact TRUSTe through their website. In certain 
circumstances, the Privacy Shield Framework provides the right to invoke 
binding arbitration to resolve complaints not resolved by other means, 
as described in Annex I to the Privacy Shield Principles. Additionally, 
as part of the Privacy Shield Framework, the U.S. State Department 
Senior Coordinator serves as the Ombudsperson to facilitate the 
processing of requests relating to national security access to data 
transmitted from the EU or Switzerland to the U.S.
 
For more information about WhatsApp's privacy practices please review 
our Privacy Policy.


 *    Intellectual Property Policy
 
Intellectual Property Policy: Your Copyrights and Trademarks
 
Table of Contents
 
     Copyright
     Trademark
     What to include in your copyright or trademark infringement claim 
to WhatsApp
 
WhatsApp LLC ("WhatsApp," "our," "we," or "us") is committed to helping 
people and organizations protect their intellectual property rights. Our 
users agree to our Terms of Service ("Terms") by installing, accessing, 
or using our apps, services, features, software, or website (together, 
"Services"). Our Terms do not allow our users to violate someone else's 
intellectual property rights when using our Services, including their 
copyrights and trademarks.
 
As explained in more detail in our Privacy Policy, we do not retain our 
users' messages in the ordinary course of providing our Services. We do, 
however, host our users' account information, including our users' 
profile picture, profile name, or status message, if they decide to 
include them as part of their account information.
 
Back to top
Copyright
 
To report copyright infringement and request that WhatsApp remove any 
infringing content it is hosting (such as a WhatsApp user's profile 
picture, profile name, or status message), please email a completed 
copyright infringement claim to 
i...@whatsapp.com
 (including all of the 
information listed below). You can also mail a complete copyright 
infringement claim to WhatsApp's copyright agent:
 
WhatsApp LLC
Attn: WhatsApp Copyright Agent
1601 Willow Road
Menlo Park, California 94025
United States of America
i...@whatsapp.com
 
 
Before you report a claim of copyright infringement, you may want to 
send a message to the relevant WhatsApp user you believe may be 
infringing your copyright. You may be able to resolve the issue without 
contacting WhatsApp.
 
Back to top
Trademark
 
To report trademark infringement and request that WhatsApp remove any 
infringing content it is hosting, please email a complete trademark 
infringement claim to 
i...@whatsapp.com
 (including all of the information 
listed below).
 
Before you report a claim of trademark infringement, you may want to 
send a message to the relevant WhatsApp user you believe may be 
infringing your trademark. You may be able to resolve the issue without 
contacting WhatsApp.
 
Back to top
What to include in your copyright or trademark infringement claim to 
WhatsApp
 
Please include all of the following information when reporting a 
copyright or trademark infringement claim to WhatsApp:
 
     Your complete contact information (full name, mailing address, and 
phone number). Note that we regularly provide your contact information, 
including your name and email address (if provided), the name of your 
organization or client who owns the rights in question, and the content 
of your report to the person whose content you are reporting. You may 
wish to provide a professional or business email address where you can 
be reached.
     A description of the copyrighted work or trademark that you claim 
has been infringed.
     A description of the content hosted on our Services that you claim 
infringes your copyright or trademark.
     Information reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the 
material on our Services. The easiest way to do this is by providing us 
the phone number of the individual who has submitted the infringing 
content on our Services.
     A declaration that:
         You have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted or 
trademarked content described above, in the manner you have complained 
of, is not authorized by the copyright or trademark owner, its agent, or 
the law;
         The information in your claim is accurate; and
         You declare, under penalty of perjury, that you are the owner 
or authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive copyright or 
trademark that is allegedly infringed.
     Your electronic signature or physical signature.


 *    Cookies
 
Cookies
About cookies
 
A cookie is a small text file that a website you visit asks your browser 
to store on your computer or mobile device.
How we use cookies
 
We use cookies to understand, secure, operate, and provide our Services. 
For example, we use cookies:
 
     to provide WhatsApp for web and desktop and other Services that are 
web-based, improve your experiences, understand how our Services are 
being used, and customize our Services;
     to understand which of our FAQs are most popular and to show you 
relevant content related to our Services;
     to remember your choices, such as your language preferences, and 
otherwise to customize our Services for you; and
     to rank the FAQs on our website based on popularity, understand 
mobile versus desktop users of our web-based Services, or understand 
popularity and effectiveness of certain of our web pages.
 
Back to top
How to control cookies
 
You can follow the instructions provided by your browser or device 
(usually located under "Settings" or "Preferences") to modify your 
cookie settings.
 
Your browser or device may offer settings that allow you to choose 
whether browser cookies are set and to delete them. These controls vary 
by browser, and manufacturers may change both the settings they make 
available and how they work at any time. Additional information about 
the controls offered by popular browsers can be found at the links 
below. Certain parts of WhatsApp Products may not work properly if you 
have disabled browser cookies.
 
     Google Chrome
     Internet Explorer
     Firefox
     Safari
     Safari Mobile
     Opera


 *    Information for people who don't use WhatsApp
 
Information for people who don't use WhatsApp
Last modified: March 10, 2022 (archived versions)
What this Notice is about
 
When people sign up for WhatsApp, they can choose if they want to add 
their device contacts to WhatsApp. This optional feature allows us to 
check if their friends, family and other contacts use WhatsApp to make 
it easier to chat with them. Other Meta Companies provide us with 
technical services like data hosting and infrastructure services. But we 
care about your privacy and we don’t share these device contacts with 
our parent company Meta Platforms Inc. or any other Meta Company for 
their own use.
 
This means that if you are listed in the device address book of a user 
who chooses to add their contacts to WhatsApp, we may still process your 
phone number even if you are not a user of the service.
 
When a user who has your number chooses to give WhatsApp access to their 
device address book, WhatsApp does not store your number in a readable 
format. Instead, we use it to create a cryptographic hash value to 
prevent your phone number from being re-identified by WhatsApp. We store 
each cryptographic hash value in a list linked to the WhatsApp users who 
uploaded the corresponding phone numbers from which the hash value was 
created. We do not collect names or any other information from a user's 
device address book.
 
In the event you decide to join WhatsApp, the limited information that 
we store is used to then help other WhatsApp users who have your phone 
number to connect with you on WhatsApp. This means that once you join 
WhatsApp they will automatically be able to see you in their WhatsApp 
contact list. However, WhatsApp will not send them a notification when 
this happens.
 
Please see below for more information.
Non-user Data Notice
 
If you’re not a user of the WhatsApp service (a “Non-user” or “you”), 
WhatsApp Ireland Limited (“we”, “our” or “us”) may process your mobile 
phone number if a WhatsApp user has your phone number saved in their 
device address book and chooses to share their contacts with WhatsApp.
 
In this Notice we’re providing information to Non-users in the European 
Region.
About contact upload - how it works
 
Contact upload allows users to choose whether to give WhatsApp 
permission to discover if contacts in their device address book are 
WhatsApp users. If so, WhatsApp can add those phone numbers to the 
user’s WhatsApp contact list and keep the list updated. WhatsApp also 
updates users’ contact list once any of their contacts who are Non-users 
join WhatsApp later.
How do we use a Non-user’s information?
 
When a user chooses to use contact upload, the phone numbers in the 
user’s device address book are uploaded on a regular basis to our 
servers, typically daily, but this depends on various factors including 
how often a user uses WhatsApp, to ensure their information is kept up 
to date. This includes phone numbers of both WhatsApp users and other 
contacts who aren’t currently WhatsApp users (i.e. Non-users). We don’t 
collect any of the other information that could appear in a user’s 
device address book including names, email addresses, etc.
 
We manage Non-user phone numbers in a way that is designed to prevent 
Non-users from being identified by WhatsApp through creating a 
cryptographic hash value from the Non-users’ phone numbers. We don’t 
store Non-users’ phone numbers, we only store these cryptographic hash 
values. Each cryptographic hash value is stored in a list on WhatsApp's 
servers, linked to the WhatsApp users who uploaded the corresponding 
phone numbers before they were hashed.
 
We use the cryptographic hash values created from Non-users’ phone 
numbers to enable users to connect more quickly and efficiently with 
people in their device address book when they join WhatsApp.
 
Separately, we also use a cryptographic hash representation of the phone 
numbers from the WhatsApp user’s device address book to detect and 
combat misuse of contact upload by assessing the hashes to determine 
whether there have been unusual changes in the device address book. This 
does not involve tracking or comparing individual phone numbers.
How is this information used if a Non-user becomes a WhatsApp user?
 
If you are listed in the device address book of a user who uses contact 
upload, and you subsequently join WhatsApp, this information is used to 
help us automatically update their WhatsApp contact list to show that 
you can now be contacted via WhatsApp. We update users' contact lists 
immediately after you join WhatsApp but sometimes contact lists can take 
longer to update.
What is our legal basis for this processing?
 
We rely on our legitimate interests and the legitimate interests of our 
users to briefly process Non-users’ phone numbers and then store the 
cryptographic hash values in the manner described above. More 
specifically, we rely on our legitimate interests in operating and 
providing the WhatsApp service to our users and keeping WhatsApp safe 
and secure, and the interests of our users in more efficiently 
connecting with their contacts who join WhatsApp.
Retaining Non-user information
 
When we collect Non-users’ phone numbers, we don’t store these phone 
numbers and we process them for no more than a few seconds to create the 
cryptographic hash values from them.
 
The cryptographic hash values are stored in a list on WhatsApp's 
servers, linked to the WhatsApp users who uploaded the phone numbers 
from which they were created, for as long as those users use contact 
upload and keep these phone numbers in their devices’ address books.
How Non-users exercise their data subject rights
 
Data subjects have the right to access, rectify, port, and erase their 
information, as well as the right to restrict and object to certain 
processing of their personal information (“Data Subject Rights”). To 
exercise those rights, contact us via this form or via the contact 
address provided below. Given that we do not store Non-users’ phone 
numbers and we only store cryptographic hash values which are designed 
to prevent WhatsApp from re-identifying your phone number, our ability 
to respond to your request and the information we can provide to you may 
be limited in practice. We hope this information addresses any queries 
you may have about how we process a Non-user’s personal information. 
However, if you have unresolved concerns you also have the right to 
complain to WhatsApp’s lead supervisory authority under the GDPR, the 
Irish Data Protection Commission, or any other data protection 
supervisory authority.
Third parties and transferring information outside the EEA as part of 
our global operations
 
We work with other Meta Companies that act as our service providers and 
provide services like data hosting and infrastructure services. However, 
Non-user phone numbers and cryptographic hash values are not shared with 
Meta Platforms Inc. or other Meta Companies for their own use.
 
This means Non-users’ information will be transferred or transmitted to, 
or stored and processed in, third countries outside of the EEA for the 
purposes described in this Notice. When the cryptographic hash values 
are transferred or transmitted to, or stored and processed, outside of 
the European Economic Area, we utilise standard contractual clauses 
approved by the European Commission for these transfers. For example, 
WhatsApp uses Meta’s global infrastructure and data centers, which are 
located around the world including in the United States, to store the 
cryptographic hash values
 
For a copy of the standard contractual clauses, please see our SCC Help 
Centre article.
Contact Us
 
If you have questions about this Data Notice or if you wish to contact 
the Data Protection Officer for WhatsApp, please use this form.
 
You can also write to WhatsApp at the following address:
 
WhatsApp Ireland Limited
 
Attn: Privacy Policy
 
4 Grand Canal Square
 
Grand Canal Harbour
 
Dublin 2
 
Ireland
 


 *    Information for people who don't use WhatsApp
 
Ora, tutto questo e' pazzesco, e mi domando dal punto di
vista del diritto se rispetta la tutela del consumatore.
 
E poi, ma siete tutti stupidi a credere che sottoscrivere
contratti a gogo' in rete non abbia alcuna ricaduta ?
