Ever since WhatsApp announced they'd had been acquired by Facebook it seems there has been plenty of concerns surrounding privacy within the app. To address those concerns, WhatsApp CEO and co-founder Jan Koum has now taken to the company's blog to 'set the record straight' and address 'a lot of inaccurate and careless information circulating about what our future partnership would mean for WhatsApp users’ data and privacy.'

Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and 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. Our principles will not change. Everything that has made WhatsApp the leader in personal messaging will still be in place. Speculation to the contrary isn’t just baseless and unfounded, it’s irresponsible. It has the effect of scaring people into thinking we’re suddenly collecting all kinds of new data. That’s just not true, and it’s important to us that you know that.

Now I'm not personally a WhatsApp user, so I have no real concerns over the app but for those of you out there who do use the app, does this help address your privacy concerns or did you even have any to begin with? It seems any time a company partners with Facebook they have to make statements like this and it's becoming a common practice among messaging apps even if Facebook isn't involved. Do these statements even work or impact your usage of such apps?

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