Islamabad, Nov 23: WhatsApp’s Voice Message Transcription Sparks Concerns Over Data Privacy and Storage. WhatsApp announced that it will be launching a new feature that would allow users to create voice message transcripts. Users will need to explicitly enable this opt-in functionality in their settings. When used, the function will automatically create a written transcript of the voicemail that only the recipient may see. Like the voice communications, the transcripts are encrypted from beginning to end and are created on the recipient’s device.
Through the Chats part of the settings menu, WhatsApp users may choose the language they want the voice message transcripts to be in and toggle voice message transcripts. After that, users can choose Transcribe after tapping and holding a voice message.
WhatsApp cautioned, however, that users may experience issues if the language in their transcripts differs from the language in the audio message, if background noise makes words difficult to understand, or if the feature does not support the language used in the voice message. Additionally, the system might generate erroneous transcriptions.
Only a few languages, including English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian, are now supported by the Android app; however, WhatsApp has pledged to add more languages. English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, and Arabic are all supported by the iOS 16+ version. iOS 17+ adds support for eight more languages.
What Role Do Transcripts Play in WhatsApp’s Privacy Guidelines?
WhatsApp’s new Privacy Policy, which permits the messaging platform to share data with other Meta firms, makes no reference to these transcripts. All of the messages, including these transcripts, are end-to-end encrypted, so not even WhatsApp can view them.
The policy does, however, stipulate that if users wish to use their services, they could need to gather more information, in which case they would notify the user. When users choose to use the app’s location-sharing feature, for instance, location data is collected. It’s unclear if WhatsApp would gather any further information to create the transcripts.
What Part Do Transcripts Play in the Privacy Policies of WhatsApp?
These transcripts are not mentioned in WhatsApp’s new Privacy Policy, which allows the messaging app to exchange data with other Meta companies. Even WhatsApp is unable to read the transcripts because all of the messages are end-to-end encrypted.
However, the policy states that they may need to collect additional information before allowing customers to access their services, in which case they would tell the user. For example, location data is gathered when users decide to use the app’s location-sharing feature. It’s uncertain if WhatsApp would collect any additional data in order to produce the transcripts.
