Messaging giants Facebook and WhatsApp have announced a big change to the latter's privacy policy which, once accepted, will let it share some user data with its parent company. This would include sourcing data for ad-targeting purposes.

Like Us on Facebook

After Facebook bought the popular application in 2014, users were concerned that the messaging app's strong position on privacy might be compromised. Co-founder Jan Koum hoped to stem these fears, writing in a blog post at the time that "Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible."

WhatsApp has said that sharing user information means Facebook can offer better friend suggestions by mapping users' social connections across the two services, and deliver more relevant ads on the social network. Additional analytics data from WhatsApp will also be shared to track usage metrics and fight spam.

For Facebook, the task of carrying out all this in a lawful manner is more challenging still since the company is under a 20-year consent decree following earlier complaints about its privacy policies. The Federal Trade Commission which serves as the country's top privacy regulator had sent a stern letter to the companies warning them to honor their promises to consumers or face an investigation into unfair trade practices.

WhatsApp has said that although it is changing its privacy policy, it continues to support end-to-end encryption. "Even as we coordinate more with Facebook in the months ahead, your encrypted messages stay private and no one else can read them," the company said in a blog post. "Not WhatsApp, not Facebook, nor anyone else. We won't post or share your WhatsApp number with others, including on Facebook, and we still won't sell, share, or give your phone number to advertisers."