Ever since WhatsApp updated its privacy policy to allow certain data to be shared with parent company Facebook, the messaging app has faced a PR backlash, with many users moving to more private chat apps.

Now WhatsApp is fighting back by sending temporary messages like Snapchat's Stories or Twitter's Fleets directly to users through the app's Status system.

"One thing that's not new is our commitment to your privacy. WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, so we can't read or hear your private conversations."

"There has been a lot of misinformation and confusion surrounding WhatsApp's recent updates, and we want everyone to understand the facts behind how WhatsApp protects people's privacy and security," a WhatsApp A spokesperson for WhatsApp responded to The Verge in an email. A WhatsApp spokesperson emailed The Verge. 'Going forward, we will be providing updates on the status tab so that WhatsApp can contact us directly.'

It is a certain irony that the company would use Status as a countermeasure against misinformation, as WhatsApp itself has been noted in the past as a powerful spreader of conspiracy theories and fake news. But whether or not users were misinformed, it is clear that rival apps have taken advantage of the uproar, with Signal and Telegram both growing in membership, and Telegram making it easier for users who have left WhatsApp to import their old chats This is what Telegram is trying to capitalize on by making it easy for users who have left WhatsApp to import their old chats.

WhatsApp announced its defense with a Status message and also launched a FAQ page.

"We want to make it clear that the policy update does not affect the privacy of your messages with friends and family.

"The changes are related to WhatsApp's optional business features, which provide additional transparency into how data is collected and used."

Not everyone is convinced by parent company Facebook's commitment to privacy, including app co-founder Brian Acton, who left Facebook in 2017, three years after he sold the company for $16 billion. Now part of the Signal Foundation, Acton has been clear about his views on the direction of the app since leaving: "I sold user privacy for the greater good," he told Forbes in 2018." I make choices and compromises and live with them every day."