The confusion was the natural result of WhatsApp’s bungled rollout of these new policies. By shoving a scary-sounding ultimatum in front of countless users, and by tying that ultimatum to a privacy policy that (I think we can all agree) is near-impossibleto comprehend, the bulk of WhatsApp’s users were left assuming the worst: that Facebook could now readtheir WhatsApp messages, snoop through their entire contact list, and know every timeyou leave someone on “read” within the app. These rumors eventually reached WhatsApp Head Will Cathcart, who issued his own lengthy Twitter threaddebunking the bulk of these claims, before WhatsApp proper did its own debunking in the form of an FAQ page.
Read more about Open to answering any queries from govt on privacy policy update: WhatsApp on Business Standard. WhatsApp is under fire over its recent privacy policy update