WhatsApp launches ad campaign for privacy and wants to make up for mistakes
WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart admits that mistakes were made when communicating the new privacy policy. An advertising campaign has now been launched that intends to fix these mistakes.
WhatsApp has responded to the privacy discussion of the past months. In an ad campaign, the messenger, a subsidiary of Facebook, wants us all to know that our messages are end-to-end encrypted. The campaign is launched today, titled «Message Privately».
The campaign doesn’t have global focus, but is being pushed in the UK and Germany, as news agency DPA reports. Why? These two countries are key markets for WhatsApp.
Global clip as highlight
The clip that is publicly available on WhatsApp's official YouTube channel is far more clever than it seems at first sight. When you watch it, you understand the situation, but not the dialogue – neither the digital dialogue on the mobile phones of the two bored people nor the spoken words of the two narrators.
In a second clip, a couple can be seen closing a door. But instead of the outside of the door, you get to see a WhatsApp chat, which encrypts as the door closes. But eagle eyes see what’s written.
The message (in German) reads: «█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █üssel in die █ase neben der Tür gelegt». In English: «█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █key is in die █ase next to the door».
The answer is: «█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ erst nach █6.00 Uhr nach Hause.» In English: «█ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ be back home after █6.00.»
That leaves one question: who puts a key in a vase?
The May update as a mistake
In May, WhatsApp released an update that made a new privacy policy sound confusing. Users interpreted it in a way to mean that more data is now flowing from WhatsApp to Facebook and/or that conversations with business accounts are no longer encrypted. And/or a variety of other rumours also spread in no time.
Now, WhatsApp is reacting to this. Speaking to DPA, WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart confirmed that while a privacy campaign had been in the works for some time, the May update had an accelerating effect.
Cathcart also admitted that mistakes were made in communicating the new privacy policies and said that it’s not true users will lose access to features if they reject the new guidelines. Yet, WhatsApp itself threatened to do just that in a FAQ post. The original page has since been changed, but an archived page from 8 May 2021 can be accessed via web.archive.org.
WhatsApp lists all security mechanisms, including privacy protection, on a specially created page.
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