Privacy And Security Principles. Since we started WhatsApp, we've built our Services with strong privacy and security principles in mind.
Connecting You With Other People. We provide, and always strive to improve, ways for you to communicate with other WhatsApp users including through messages, voice and video calls, sending images and video, showing your status, and sharing your location with others when you choose. We may provide a convenient platform that enables you to send and receive money to or from other users across our platform. WhatsApp works with partners, service providers, and affiliated companies to help us provide ways for you to connect with their services.
Ways To Improve Our Services. We analyze how you make use of WhatsApp, in order to improve our Services, including helping businesses who use WhatsApp measure the effectiveness and distribution of their services and messages. WhatsApp uses the information it has and also works with partners, service providers, and affiliated companies to do this.
Communicating With Businesses. We provide, and always strive to improve, ways for you and businesses and other organizations, to communicate with each other using our Services, such as through order, transaction, and appointment information, delivery and shipping notifications, product and service updates, and marketing.
Safety, Security, And Integrity. We work to protect the safety, security, and integrity of our Services. This includes appropriately dealing with abusive people and activity violating our Terms. We work to prohibit misuse of our Services including harmful conduct towards others, violations of our Terms and policies, and address situations where we may be able to help support or protect our community. If we learn of people or activity like this, we will take appropriate action, including by removing such people or activity or contacting law enforcement. Any such removal will be in accordance with the “Termination” section below.
Enabling Access To Our Services. To operate our global Services, we need to store and distribute content and information in data centers and systems around the world, including outside your country of residence. The use of this global infrastructure is necessary and essential to provide our Services. This infrastructure may be owned or operated by our service providers including affiliated companies.
Affiliated Companies. We are part of the Meta Companies. As part of the Meta Companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, the Meta Companies as described in WhatsApp's Privacy Policy, including to provide integrations which enable you to connect your WhatsApp experience with other Meta Company Products; to ensure security, safety, and integrity across the Meta Company Products; and to improve your ads and products experience across the Meta Company Products. Learn more about the Meta Companies and their terms and policies here.
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NO ACCESS TO EMERGENCY SERVICES: There are important differences between our Services and your mobile phone and a fixed-line telephone and SMS services. Our Services do not provide access to emergency services or emergency services providers, including the police, fire departments, or hospitals, or otherwise connect to public safety answering points. You should ensure you can contact your relevant emergency services providers through a mobile phone, a fixed-line telephone, or other service.
IF YOU ARE A WHATSAPP USER LOCATED IN THE UNITED STATES OR CANADA, OUR TERMS CONTAIN A BINDING ARBITRATION PROVISION, WHICH STATES THAT, EXCEPT IF YOU OPT OUT AND EXCEPT FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF DISPUTES, WHATSAPP AND YOU AGREE TO RESOLVE ALL DISPUTES (DEFINED BELOW) THROUGH BINDING INDIVIDUAL ARBITRATION, WHICH MEANS THAT YOU WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO HAVE THOSE DISPUTES DECIDED BY A JUDGE OR JURY, AND THAT YOU WAIVE YOUR RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN CLASS ACTIONS, CLASS ARBITRATIONS, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTIONS. PLEASE READ THE "SPECIAL ARBITRATION PROVISION FOR UNITED STATES OR CANADA USERS" SECTION BELOW TO LEARN MORE.Registration. You must register for our Services using accurate information, provide your current mobile phone number, and, if you change it, update your mobile phone number using our in-app change number feature. You agree to receive text messages and phone calls (from us or our third-party providers) with codes to register for our Services.
Address Book. You can use the contact upload feature and provide us, if permitted by applicable laws, with the phone numbers in your mobile address book on a regular basis, including those of both the users of our Services and your other contacts. Learn more about our contact upload feature here.
Age. You must be at least 13 years old to register for and use our Services (or such greater age required in your country or territory for you to be authorized to register for and use our Services without parental approval). In addition to being of the minimum required age to use our Services under applicable law, if you are not old enough to have authority to agree to our Terms in your country or territory, your parent or guardian must agree to our Terms on your behalf. Please ask your parent or guardian to read these Terms with you.
Devices And Software. You must provide certain devices, software, and data connections to use our Services, which we otherwise do not supply. In order to use our Services, you consent to manually or automatically download and install updates to our Services. You also consent to our sending you notifications via our Services from time to time, as necessary to provide our Services to you.
Fees And Taxes. You are responsible for all carrier data plans, Internet fees, and other fees and taxes associated with your use of our Services.
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Privacy Policy And User Data
WhatsApp cares about your privacy. WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy describes our data (including message) practices, including the types of information we receive and collect from you, how we use and share this information, and your rights in relation to the processing of information about you.
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Acceptable Use Of Our Services
Our Terms And Policies. You must use our Services according to our Terms and posted policies. If you violate our Terms or policies, we may take action with respect to your account, including disabling or suspending your account and, if we do, you agree not to create another account without our permission. Disabling or suspending your account will be in accordance with the "Termination" section below.
Legal And Acceptable Use. You must access and use our Services only for legal, authorized, and acceptable purposes. You will not use (or assist others in using) our Services in ways that: (a) violate, misappropriate, or infringe the rights of WhatsApp, our users, or others, including privacy, publicity, intellectual property, or other proprietary rights; (b) are illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, intimidating, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or instigate or encourage conduct that would be illegal or otherwise inappropriate, such as promoting violent crimes, endangering or exploiting children or others, or coordinating harm; (c) involve publishing falsehoods, misrepresentations, or misleading statements; (d) impersonate someone; (e) involve sending illegal or impermissible communications such as bulk messaging, auto-messaging, auto-dialing, and the like; or (f) involve any non-personal use of our Services unless otherwise authorized by us.
Harm To WhatsApp Or Our Users. You must not (or assist others to) directly, indirectly, through automated or other means, access, use, copy, adapt, modify, prepare derivative works based upon, distribute, license, sublicense, transfer, display, perform, or otherwise exploit our Services in impermissible or unauthorized manners, or in ways that burden, impair, or harm us, our Services, systems, our users, or others, including that you must not directly or through automated means: (a) reverse engineer, alter, modify, create derivative works from, decompile, or extract code from our Services; (b) send, store, or transmit viruses or other harmful computer code through or onto our Services; (c) gain or attempt to gain unauthorized access to our Services or systems; (d) interfere with or disrupt the safety, security, confidentiality, integrity, availability, or performance of our Services; (e) create accounts for our Services through unauthorized or automated means; (f) collect information of or about our users in any impermissible or unauthorized manner; (g) sell, resell, rent, or charge for our Services or data obtained from us or our Services in an unauthorized manner; (h) distribute or make our Services available over a network where they could be used by multiple devices at the same time, except as authorized through tools we have expressly provided via our Services; (i) create software or APIs that function substantially the same as our Services and offer them for use by third parties in an unauthorized manner; or (j) misuse any reporting channels, such as by submitting fraudulent or groundless reports or appeals.
Keeping Your Account Secure. You are responsible for keeping your device and your WhatsApp account safe and secure, and you must notify us promptly of any unauthorized use or security breach of your account or our Services.
