Following significant user reaction to Facebook’s announcement to share more data than was collected by WhatsApp, the company backtracked and postponed the changes coming into force. These changes will be mandatory from May 15 if we want to continue to have “the full functionality of WhatsApp.”
Some mandatory changes to have an operational app
In an email collected by TechCrunch Facebook explains that WhatsApp is going to insist “progressively” to users who have not yet accepted the changes in the policy in order to “have the full functionality of WhatsApp” starting on May 15. Facebook has confirmed to TechCrunch that this is the plan and has pointed out that “a short period of time” represents a few weeks.
If they still do not accept the conditions, “for a short period of time, these users will be able to receive calls and notifications, but they will not be able to read or send messages from the app,” the company adds in the note.
It should be clarified that the measure in question does not affect all chats equally. Facebook, in fact, has postponed the entry into force of this new privacy policy to clarify that it affects the messages we send to WhatsApp accounts that are registered as businesses. These messages, and not those that we send to personal accounts, can be seen by Facebook and analyzed to later show us advertising .
A mandatory policy as of May 15 if we want to continue reading and sending messages through the app.
The truth is that after the initial announcement we saw many users signing up for competing WhatsApp services such as Signal or Telegram . So much so that Telegram was the most downloaded messaging app in January, while Telegram itself and Signal also saw unprecedented growth in the number of users.
Different changes in the EU, but they will still have to be accepted
In the coming weeks we will see the warning message appear at the top of the chat list to review the new data policy. As we see in the image above, after a brief explanation of the changes, we are invited to accept the new terms .
These changes, however, are different in the European Union , where GDPR protections prevent Facebook from collecting this information from WhatsApp. In any case, we should keep in mind that we must accept the following changes in order to continue using the app:
Additional information on how we treat your data . The updated Conditions and Privacy Policy provide more information on how we treat your data, including our legitimizing bases for treatment and our commitment to privacy.
Better communication with companies . Many companies rely on WhatsApp to communicate with their customers. We work with companies that use Facebook, or third parties, to facilitate storage and to better manage their communications with you on WhatsApp.
Some changes that do not include the key paragraph that will be applied in the rest of the world:
Facilitate communication . As part of the Facebook businesses , WhatsApp partners with Facebook to offer experiences and integration with the Facebook family of applications and products.
