WhatsApp has announced that it is moving forward the date for the acceptance of its new terms and conditions to May 15 from February 8.
When the platform announced a few days ago that it would delete accounts of users who fail to accept the new terms, it led to criticisms, causing some to migrate to other less popular but equally functional platforms such as Telegram, Signal, among others.
In response to all the concerns and confusion, the app owned by Facebook said it has cancelled the February 8 deadline for users to accept these rules, thus delaying it until later in May.
The company said the extension would allow it ample time to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security work on WhatsApp. They will then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before May 15.
Earlier this month, WhatsApp started testing its new terms and privacy policy screen when users launched the app. The screen asked users to click “Agree” and accept the new terms, which will take effect on February 8.
This caused a mass panic caused by miscommunication led to many switching over to Telegram and Signal.
WhatsApp has come out to clarify that the new policy affects only those who interact with WhatsApp Business accounts on the service.
These Business accounts can now use Facebook hosting services to manage their WhatsApp chats, use Facebook-branded commerce features such as Shops, and display an ad on Facebook to message the business directly on WhatsApp.
In each of these cases, Facebook will now collect information on the users if they interact with these business and their ads, similar to clicking any other ad on Facebook.
WhatsApp says the new policy doesn’t change anything about users messaging or calling other users or groups, as those terms haven’t been changed.
It explained that messages and calls will continue to be encrypted and messages won’t be stored on Facebook’s servers. It’s not that WhatsApp doesn’t share any data at all with Facebook; it’s just that the amount of data shared isn’t changing with this update.
