In the wake of Facebook’s data privacy scandal, it is not surprising that the scrutiny has also extended to other Facebook products and services, such as WhatsApp. The good news is that if you were wondering about what kind of data WhatsApp collects on you, the company has recently announced (via TechCrunch) a data download tool.This follows Instagram’s own data download tool which also recently rolled out to users which allows them to download their photos, videos, and profile information. According to WhatsApp, “In the coming weeks, you will be able to download and see the limited data that we collect. This feature will be rolling out to all users around the world on the newest version of the app.”
On the WhatsApp FAQ page, “The Request Account Info feature allows you to request and export a report of your WhatsApp account information and settings. Examples of this information include your profile photo and group names.” The company also claims that a report will take about 3 days to generate, “Your report will be available approximately 3 days after the date requested. You can refer to the Ready by date when waiting for your report.”
Note that unlike Instagram’s data download tool, WhatsApp’s tool is more about showing users what information the company has on them. Messages cannot be downloaded, although if you’re more interested in backing up data, for the most part WhatsApp already backs up your message data to the cloud.