WhatsApp and Removing your Phone Number from their Network.
WhatsApp Messenger is a cross platform mobile messaging app that allows its users to exchange messeages without having to pay for SMS. It does this by using your internet data plan.
To do all this, WhatsApp Messenger uses your telephone number to route chat messages between you and your contacts. WhatsApp values our privacy, and have not, do not and will not ever sell your personal information to anyone. They list these details in their Privacy Notice
Once WhatsApp verifies your phone number through regular SMS, other people who have WhatsApp can contact you, if they have your phone number in their address book. WhatsApp does this by comparing phone numbers in your phone's address book and their list of verified phone numbers on their own server.
If you choose not to use WhatsApp Messenger anymore, there is no automated way to have WhatsApp remove your phone number from their own server.
I was concerned because I have friends who had their name/number show up on my WhatsApp Messenger contact list, even though they told me that they had no wish to use WhatsApp Messenger anymore. Heck, even I didn't want to use WhatsApp anymore.
So how does one get WhatsApp to remove your number from their servers?
You have to email WhatsApp at support@whatsapp.com to get them to remove your phone number from their servers. You must include your full phone number including the country code. Once you provide all the information, your phone number will be removed from their server within 24 hours upon their acknowledgement of your email.
Once your phone number is removed from WhatsApp's system, other WhatsApp users will not see you on their contact lists anymore.
If you wish to use WhatsApp Messenger in the future, you'll have to re-verify your phone number.
WhatsApp, this isn't good. You should provide an automated way to remove a phone number from your system. You should also come up with a system to remove phone numbers of non-active users from your network.
Do the right thing please.