WhatsApp Delays New Privacy Policy by Three Months Amid Severe Criticism

WhatsApp introduced delaying by three months the implementation of a brand new privateness coverage that has confronted large backlash with tens of hundreds of thousands of its customers transferring from the platform to rivals like Signal and Telegram. The coverage change was initially scheduled to come back into impact on February 8, the Facebook-owned firm mentioned. It has clarified that the replace doesn’t have an effect on knowledge sharing with Facebook with regard to non-public conversations or different profile data and solely addresses enterprise chats within the occasion a consumer converses with an organization”s customer support platform by means of WhatsApp.

“We’ve heard from so many individuals how a lot confusion there may be round our latest replace. There”s been a whole lot of misinformation inflicting concern and we need to assist everybody perceive our ideas and the info,” WhatsApp mentioned in an organization weblog.

“WhatsApp was constructed on a easy thought: what you share together with your family and friends stays between you. This means we’ll all the time defend your private conversations with end-to-end encryption, in order that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can see these non-public messages. It”s why we do not preserve logs of who everybody”s messaging or calling. We can also’t see your shared location and we do not share your contacts with Facebook,” it mentioned additional.

Asserting that none of that modifications, the corporate mentioned, “The replace contains new choices individuals must message a enterprise on WhatsApp, and supplies additional transparency about how we acquire and use knowledge. While not everybody retailers with a enterprise on WhatsApp right now, we predict that extra individuals will select to take action sooner or later and it”s vital individuals are conscious of those companies. This replace doesn’t increase our means to share knowledge with Facebook.” The firm mentioned it was transferring again the date on which individuals will likely be requested to overview and settle for the phrases. “No one can have their account suspended or deleted on February 8.

We’re additionally going to do much more to clear up the misinformation round how privateness and safety works on WhatsApp. We”ll then go to individuals step by step to overview the coverage at their very own tempo earlier than new enterprise choices can be found on May 15,” it added.

The firm launched a separate weblog publish Friday attempting to clear up the confusion, and it included a chart that specifies what data is protected when somebody makes use of WhatsApp. Facebook executives, together with Instagram chief Adam Mosseri and WhatsApp head Will Cathcart, additionally used Twitter to try to clear up the confusion. Facebook”s poor privateness monitor document, and the truth that WhatsApp has over time turned its sights on monetising the platform for its giant worldwide consumer base, has eroded belief within the chat app, which, in flip, has had the impact of turning a comparatively mundane replace right into a worldwide controversy.

WhatsApp now says it’s now going to make use of the three-month delay to higher talk each the modifications in its new coverage and its long-standing privateness practices round private chats, location sharing, and different delicate knowledge. “We’re now transferring again the date on which individuals will likely be requested to overview and settle for the phrases,” the weblog publish reads.

The firm mentioned nobody will likely be dropping entry to the app in the event that they did not conform to the brand new phrases of service settlement that communicated the modifications earlier this month. “We’re additionally going to do much more to clear up the misinformation round how privateness and safety works on WhatsApp. We”ll then go to individuals step by step to overview the coverage at their very own tempo earlier than new enterprise choices can be found on May 15,” it added.