Remember when they tried to force everyone to accept the new terms or they would disable access after a certain date? Then they walked it back after people started using alternative platforms.
The privacy policy was never "walked back", they decided to do it anyway after the controversy (on HN and other platforms) died down.
Here's a newer article showing the metadata being sent to Facebook (presumably for advertising purposes), it includes your phone number, device ID, and location.
Here's a newer article showing the metadata being sent to Facebook (presumably for advertising purposes), it includes your phone number, device ID, and location.
https://www.androidauthority.com/whatsapp-privacy-1189873/