In April 2018, WhatsApp announced that users were able to see and download information that they collect to appease privacy enthusiasts. Even though WhatsApp already said that it doesn’t listen to your conversations, I just wanted to be sure of that that’s why I decided to download my data.
What information then does WhatsApp collect?
Nothing freaks you out. They just know about your username, privacy settings,profile picture, your device name and model so forth.
But personally for no apparent reason, I was just a bit unsettled when I found out that it collects phone numbers of my contacts. I know you are saying “Duh! there are not your numbers so why the hell should you feel unsettled”. Anyways, here are screenshots of the full information that WhatsApp collected from me (and what they collect from anybody as well):
If you want to do it yourself, here’s how to download the data
1. Go to WhatsApp Settings.
2. Go to Account.
3. Go to Request account info.
4. Go to Download report.
5. A ZIP file will be downloaded to your phone.
6. Once the file is downloaded to your phone, select Export report.
3 comments
Thank you for the news
They can even access the so called Encrypted messages
When WhatsApp shows you a list of contacts (using WhatsApp) on your phone when you create a new chat, it is ludicrous to think that they hadn’t uploaded your contact list to their servers. There is no other practical way to establish which of your contacts is on WhatsApp, and which aren’t. Otherwise, you’d have to attempt to message a contact first, then be told whether they are on WhatsApp or not. That would create such an extremely poor user experience noone would want to use it.
Most of what is considered as data collected is actually account status and configuration information REQUIRED for the application to work. I downloaded my report a long time ago, then it took about 24 hours to be generated. There is nothing malicious, or devious, about any of the information I saw collected in my opinion.
And, if they were listening to your calls, what kind of information was the author expecting to downloaded. Call recordings or transcriptions? LOL