Whatsapp privacy concerns “unfounded”

Whatsapp has assured its users that there are no privacy issues with the mobile app following the $16 billion buyout from Facebook.

Co-founder Jan Koum wrote on the WhatsApp blog to “set the record straight,” describing speculation about the acquisition undermining how the company treats user data as not only “baseless” but “irresponsible.”

“We built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible: You don’t have to give us your name and we don’t ask for your email address. We don’t know your birthday. We don’t know your home address. We don’t know where you work. We don’t know your likes, what you search for on the internet or collect your GPS location. None of that data has ever been collected and stored by WhatsApp, and we really have no plans to change that.

“If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values, we wouldn’t have done it. Instead, we are forming a partnership that would allow us to continue operating independently and autonomously. Our fundamental values and beliefs will not change.”