After WhatsApp’s recent privacy policy update seemingly caused mass panic among its users who feared non-consensual sharing of their private data, the Facebook-owned messaging app issued a clarification. But it didn’t stop there.
They're releasing full page ads about privacy? Did bribing journalists and op-ed writers with bags of money not work this time?
— Madhu Menon (@madmanweb) January 13, 2021
On Wednesday, the social media company published full-page ads in leading English dailies such as the Hindu, Indian Express, and the Times of India titled “WhatsApp respects and protects your privacy”. The ad included the sentence “respect for your privacy is coded in our DNA” which NDTV last night revealed the new privacy policy had dropped.
Other leading English dailies such as Hindustan Times did not carry such an ad, nor did Hindi newspapers such as Amar Ujala and Dainik Bhaskar.
Hard sell. pic.twitter.com/Uq94WAZycW
— Deepanjana (@dpanjana) January 13, 2021
Interestingly, while the Mumbai edition of the Times of India carried the ad on its front page, the Delhi edition ran it on the last page as did the Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Lucknow editions.
Update:
A previous version of this story stated that the Telegraph did not carry the advertisement. This was incorrect; the Telegraph did carry the WhatsApp ad on the front page of its Calcutta edition.
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