WhatsApp sharing users data with Facebook won’t affect Irish users

Other users around the world will lose access to WhatsApp on February 8 if they do not agree to the new terms.

In an announcement sent to users around the world on Wednesday, January 6, WhatsApp notified users that they would have to agree to let Facebook and its subsidiaries to collect WhatsApp data, including users' phone numbers, contacts' phone numbers, locations, and more. If the two billions users of WhatsApp do not agree to these new terms by Monday, February 8, they would lose access to the app. WhatsApp states that the reason for the update in policy is to allow businesses to store and manage WhatsApp chats using Facebook's infrastructure. Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014, and previous gave users a one-time chance to opt out of sharing data with Facebook in 2016. However, it appears that these changes won't affect Irish users, or any other WhatsApp users in the EU and the UK, as a  spokesperson for WhatsApp told the ARS Technica the following: "There are no changes to WhatsApp's data sharing practices in the European region (including UK) arising from the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. For the avoidance of any doubt, it is still the case that WhatsApp does not share European region WhatsApp user data with Facebook for the purpose of Facebook using this data to improve its products or advertisements." READ NEXT: PlayStation and Xbox reveal their free subscription games for January