The new privacy conditions of WhatsApp have generated controversy since its announcement. Although they were delayed until May 15, it is something that you must accept whether you want to or not.
To smooth things out and avoid losing more users, the messaging service announced how they will inform users about upcoming changes. According to WhatsApp, in recent weeks they have reviewed user comments and listened to people’s concerns.
The company maintains the discourse that conversations will remain protected by end-to-end encryption and that will not change. They also mention that they will not share your contacts with Facebook or keep a record of your actions within the application.
In the coming weeks, a banner will appear within WhatsApp with more information about the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
“We want everyone to be aware of our ongoing commitment to upholding end-to-end encryption and protecting the privacy and security of our users. Therefore, we are using the States feature to share our values and updates. directly within WhatsApp, and we will work even harder to communicate more clearly as we move forward.”
WhatsApp says they reflected on how they could have better communicated the changes. They will now include additional information to answer questions and address people’s concerns. The strategy comes after weeks of confusion where the service lost millions of users who migrated to other platforms.
Regarding the latter, the company assures that “it is natural for people to test the applications to see what they offer.” WhatsApp takes the opportunity to criticize some competitors for not offering end-to-end encryption or for mentioning that they collect less information from users.
“We believe that people are looking for applications that are both reliable and secure, even when it is necessary for WhatsApp to have access to certain limited information.”
This last point is what stands out and reveals that WhatsApp is not addressing the real concern about its policies. The initial confusion was not because users were afraid Facebook would read their conversations but because it would collect more data.
The company promises to live up to the challenge and better communicate its decisions. The reality is that as of May 15, people will have to accept their questionable practices of handling their information if they want to continue using the service.
