With this document, we would like to inform you about changes to the connection between Userlike and the WhatsApp Business Platform. This affects your Userlike account if you use WhatsApp Channels, either for support requests or with the WhatsApp Campaigns feature.
Some general information
Starting from April 12th, 2024, newly created WhatsApp Channels connect to the WhatsApp Business Platform via the WhatsApp Cloud API, hosted by Meta, through our partner 360dialog.
During the course of 2024, existing connections will also be migrated to the "Cloud API". We will inform about this separately.
360dialog remains our partner for managing the connections, but data is processed and stored on Meta servers.
Here you can find the current privacy policies of 360dialog:
https://docs.360dialog.com/docs/useful/imprint-and-dataprivacy
For you as our customers, nothing changes in daily work, the changes happen exclusively in the background. However, the setup process might take longer than before (up to one hour until the channel is available)
Technical background
With the On-Premise API, our partner 360dialog hosts a separate WhatsApp On-Premise container that provides the API for each WhatsApp number. With the Cloud API, this complexity is removed and Meta directly provides the API.
Switching to the Cloud API comes with several advantages, like higher performance, increased reliability and faster availability of the latest features and fixes.
Here you can find more information provided by Meta:
Data Privacy background
In regards to data privacy there is a change of how and where the data is stored that you need to be aware of.
The data storage of the on-premise solution was hosted by our partner 360dialog on their servers (AWS, configured for EU region).
With the cloud solution the data will be stored on cloud servers directly by Meta instead. Every customer has to enter into a direct contractual relationship with Meta. This will be ensured during the sign up flow for new numbers.
For existing customers this will need to be triggered separately, we will inform you beforehand how this can be done.
We have configured the Meta cloud servers to be in EU (Germany) when you are verifying your number for the WhatsApp Business API with our service.
Additionally, Meta Inc. is verified for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework so you have an adequate legal base for possible third country transfers.
Find more on Meta’s approach on data privacy for the cloud API here:
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/cloud-api/overview/data-privacy-and-security/
Meta’s terms & conditions regarding cloud API can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/legal/Meta-Hosting-Terms-Cloud-API