WhatsApp’s new Privacy Policy has started Here’s what you need to know

In the beginning year, WhatsApp He took daily steps to update the terms of use and privacy policy, primarily based on the app’s business offering. The changes caused a great deal of reaction because they inadvertently stood out WhatsApp years policy of sharing certain user data, such as phone numbers, with the parent company Facebook. Instead of changing the policy that sparked the discussion, WhatsApp changed the deadline for users to accept it from the original date of February 8th to Saturday. If you don’t? WhatsApp will become unusable.

But not together. If you haven’t approved the new policy yet, you’ll see more pop-ups on WhatsApp explaining the changes below with a large green Accept button. If you tap, WhatsApp will continue to share certain account data with Facebook. If you prefer not to agree, you can initially press the back arrow in the upper left corner of the overlay. Over time, however, pop-ups will appear more often. Eventually, you won’t be able to click at all, and the functionality of the app will start to degrade.

WhatsApp announced in February that anyone who initially denied the updates would immediately lose functionality. But the company has since opted to allow the wheels to gradually get out of the car before the app starts to turn into a ditch and stop working completely.

“We’ve been posting a notification in recent weeks to provide more information on the WhatsApp update,” the company said. statement. “After giving everyone time to review, we continue to remember that they review and accept those who haven’t had a chance to do so. Over the course of several weeks, the memento that people receive will become permanent.”

Once you get to the point where WhatsApp has covered its policy notification on the interface, you can still use the app for a while. You can send incoming calls, for example, and if you have notifications turned on, you can read and reply to messages. But you will not be able to view your chat list or start any contact with WhatsApp friends, as again the privacy policy update will block your path. After this weekend experience, WhatsApp will be completely plugged in, and you won’t even receive calls or messages.

The reality is that for most users, accepting changes to the privacy policies will not have a big impact on their interaction with WhatsApp. All WhatsApp communications will still be there end-to-end encrypted by default, this means that your messages and photos can only be viewed by you and the users you are chatting with. WhatsApp will still not be able to access or share your communications with Facebook. Meanwhile, WhatsApp will You may be able to share user account information with your phone number, WhatsApp, how long and how often you use logs, device identifiers, IP addresses, and other details about your device with Facebook. Also, WhatsApp can share transaction and payment data, cookies and location information if you consent to Facebook. All of this has been true since 2016.

It is likely that the reaction forces caught WhatsApp by surprise, as it reminded users of the existing policy, rather than creating a new one. WhatsApp first announced the changes on January 4 and a few days later, the Telegram messaging app he said it gained tens of millions of users, and The signal brag “unprecedented“Growth. In the effort harden the bleeding, WhatsApp delayed the full deployment of the new policies by a month, so users would have more time to be aware of the changes.