In a totally unexpected turn, WhatsApp has decided to backtrack and delays enforcement of privacy terms by 3 months.
WhatsApp’s original plan was for its new terms and conditions to start on February 8. However, the Facebook subsidiary decided that the update would apply until May 15.
Through a statement shared on its website, the company expresses its concern about the “misinformation” that currently surrounds the policies of its service.
These types of updates are very common in all services, and usually include legal or technical changes. But the latest changes to WhatsApp have been especially controversial because of its association with Facebook.
Among the misinformation that has been shared about the update, according to WhatsApp, is the relationship of the app with Facebook and the personal data that is shared between both platforms.
WhatsApp has reconfirmed that it does not share our contacts with Facebook, it does not keep the records of our messages or calls, and that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook are able to read the messages , as they are encrypted from point to point.
In fact, WhatsApp goes so far as to claim that none of that changes with the new conditions, and that it does not expand its ability to share data with Facebook.
The company explains that the changes have been introduced for the new options that will allow contacting businesses through WhatsApp, businesses that can have a Facebook account; and for this it had to include transparency on how it uses the data with that function.
The three months of postponement, according to WhatsApp, will help them communicate in a better way the changes they are trying to implement. “WhatsApp was built on a simple idea: what you share with your friends and family stays with you . This means that we will always protect your personal conversations with end-to-end encryption, so that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can see these private messages.”
WhatsApp has lost users with this controversy seems evident; Apps like Telegram or Signal have gotten millions of new users these days.
