Security and privacy concerns are at a high compared to recent years, due to social media sites collecting our personal information and the US government spying on citizens. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg even called President Obama to complain about the NSA's activity, which highlights the amount of attention this topic is taking up in our society right now.
Facebook itself recently purchased mobile messaging program WhatsApp for $19bn, leading to concerns within the app's user base that their data or messages would be fed to Facebook. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum would like any users to know that concerns over privacy or security caused by the Facebook buyout are "baseless and unfounded".
Koum wrote a blog post to "set the record straight" and stress how much he values private communication. He cites his own experience growing up in Ukraine under USSR control, constantly aware that any phone conversations could be monitored. He goes on to say respect for privacy is part of WhatsApp's core values, and they built it around the "goal of knowing as little about you as possible".
They don't want or know your birthday, address, what you search the internet for, or any other private details, and none of that information is ever collected or stored by WhatsApp. Koum explains that if partnering with Facebook would have required them to change their values, they would not have done it.
He writes, "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.
"Make no mistake: our future partnership with Facebook will not compromise the vision that brought us to this point. Our focus remains on delivering the promise of WhatsApp far and wide, so that people around the world have the freedom to speak their mind without fear."
There's some humor to be found in Zuckerberg being the one to criticize spying efforts when a social networking site like his thrives on personal data--but there's a notable difference between a social media site you sign up for collecting data, and your own government doing it in secret. Regardless, Koum has assured users that WhatsApp wants and has no part in those activities, and they will remain autonomous.