WhatsApp CEO looks to quiet post-Facebook purchase privacy concerns

WhatsApp made sweeping headlines when it was acquired by Facebook for $19 billion (about £11b,AU$20b). But along with the big bucks the messaging service received, it was roped in with Facebook's questionable privacy principles.

Now WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum has come out in a blog post to set the record straight on what WhatsApp's partnership with Facebook means for users' data and privacy.

"Above all else, I want to make sure you understand how deeply I value the principle of private communication," Koum wrote. The WhatsApp CEO continued on to say privacy was a very personal matter for him having grown up in the Soviet USSR during the 1980s.

"Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible," he said.

Keep it safe, keep it secret

Among the information users still won't have to provide, Koum noted that his company doesn't need to know anyone's name, email address, birthday, home address, where they work or live, search history or GPS location - basically any info that's ever collected by Facebook.

Koum stated that his company's "fundamental values and beliefs will not change." The company head honcho promised his service would continue operating without any of this data, which has never been collected or stored by WhatsApp

"If partnering with Facebook meant that we had to change our values, we wouldn't have done it," he continued. "Instead, we are forming a partnership that would allow us to continue operating independently and autonomously.

"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."

• In a privacy-minded world every little bit helps, and that includes ultra-secure smartphones