News outlets continuously report on

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Personalized Ads: For more relevant advertising on Meta's other platforms, based on your interactions on WhatsApp (e.g., if you interact with a business on WhatsApp, you might see an ad for that business on Facebook/Instagram).
Security and Integrity: To combat spam, abuse, and ensure service security.

Regulatory Fines and Legal Battles (Ongoing in 2024-2025): fines imposed by regulators (e.g., the EU under the Digital Markets Act, India's Competition Commission of India - CCI) on Meta for its data-sharing poland whatsapp number data practices. For example, recent news (January 2025) indicated that the NCLAT in India stayed a five-year ban imposed by the CCI on WhatsApp's data sharing with Meta, highlighting the ongoing legal complexities and the large sums involved (e.g., a Rs 213 crore penalty). These cases often argue that Meta's "take it or leave it" policy update for data sharing was anti-competitive and undermined user autonomy.


Meta AI Integration (New Controversy 2024-2025): Recent news (April 2025) highlights concerns about the forced integration of Meta AI within WhatsApp. Critics and users are worried about how interactions with the AI chatbot, even if separate from E2EE personal chats, might lead to data exposure and collection for AI model training, despite WhatsApp's assurances that personal chats remain encrypted.

While WhatsApp continues to rely heavily on end-to-end encryption for the content of your communications, it does collect significant metadata and account information. The biggest news surrounding WhatsApp's data collection consistently centers on how this non-encrypted data is shared with its parent company, Meta, for purposes like improving services and personalized advertising across their platforms, leading to ongoing legal challenges and user privacy concerns.