Security and Integrity: To combat spam and abuse across Meta's services.
Regulatory Scrutiny and Fines: News frequently covers the significant fines imposed by privacy and antitrust regulators (e.g., in the EU under the Digital Markets Act, and by India's Competition Commission of India - CCI) on Meta for its data-sharing practices and the "take it or leave it" nature of its privacy policy updates. These legal battles are ongoing, with recent news (early 2025) even reporting on legal stays or appeals against bans related to data sharing, emphasizing the complex legal landscape.
Upcoming Features & Data Privacy News:
Usernames (Big News!): a major step towards latvia whatsapp number data giving users more control. This will allow people to connect without directly sharing their phone numbers, thus reducing the exposure of that specific piece of data.
"Phone Number Privacy" in Communities: This feature, already rolling out, means your phone number isn't visible to all members in a Community, enhancing privacy in large group settings.
Advanced Chat Privacy: More recent news (April-May 2025) mentions WhatsApp rolling out "Advanced Chat Privacy" settings, which provide users with more control over preventing chat exports, managing auto-downloads of media, and limiting how their content might be used for AI features (though this is primarily about content, not account data).
In essence, while WhatsApp maintains strong end-to-end encryption for your actual communications, it does collect various types of metadata and account information. The ongoing "news" about WhatsApp's data primarily revolves around how this non-encrypted data is handled, particularly in relation to its parent company Meta, and WhatsApp's continuous efforts to introduce new features that enhance user control and privacy, especially with the upcoming usernames.