Tesla chief Elon Musk had also joined in the conversation, asking people to leave WhatsApp.
In a series of tweets, WhatsApp Head Will Cathcart sought to share his views on the matter.
He said the company updated its policy "to be transparent and to better describe optional people-to-business features".
"It's important for us to be clear, this update describes business communication and does not change WhatsApp's data-sharing practices with Facebook. It does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family wherever they are in the world," he said.
Mr. Cathcart emphasised that with end-to-end encryption (E2E), it cannot see private chats or calls and neither can Facebook and that the company remains committed to E2E.