In a new statement posted on its website, WhatsApp says users won’t lose any functionality if they fail to accept its new privacy policy by May 15th. “No one will have their accounts deleted or lose functionality of WhatsApp on May 15th because of this update.”
Although WhatsApp has relaxed the deadline for accepting the new policy, it’s still coming into force, sources with knowledge of WhatsApp’s plans confirmed. It’ll still be effective from May 15th for new users and for people who’ve already accepted the policy. The difference is that anyone who doesn’t accept the policy now won’t lose full functionality immediately. Instead, they’ll be shown a reminder to accept the new policy.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said: “We’ve spent the last several months providing more information about our update to users around the world. In that time, the majority of people who have received it have accepted the update and WhatsApp continues to grow. However, for those that have not yet had a chance to do so, their accounts will not be deleted or lose functionality on May 15. We’ll continue to provide reminders to those users within WhatsApp in the weeks to come.”
WhatsApp’s has faced huge criticism since it announced its new privacy policy. Users were worried that it weakens the chat service’s encryption or allows it to share more of users’ personal data with parent company Facebook.
However, the policy doesn’t change the fact that personal messages between users are end-to-end encrypted, meaning only each recipient can read them. Instead, it relates to messages sent to businesses on WhatsApp. These may be stored on Facebook’s servers, and their data may be used for advertising.
