WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, recently updated its privacy policy to indicate that some changes were in store. Specifically, forcing users to accept a significant amount of data sharing with Facebook proper. That raised some eyebrows, but now there’s a bit of a delay to the whole thing.
WhatsApp has confirmed today that it is delaying the rollout of its update privacy policy. The reason? The general confusion over the data sharing policy with Facebook, which has caused a lot of (pretty negative) feedback since its debut. However, while the rollout is delayed, it is not canceled — not at the time of publication, anyway.
WhatsApp says that the new privacy policy rollout is being delayed by three months.
We’ve heard from so many people how much confusion there is around our recent update. There’s been a lot of misinformation causing concern and we want to help everyone understand our principles and the facts.
WhatsApp was built on a simple idea: what you share with your friends and family stays between you. This means we will always protect your personal conversations with end-to-end encryption, so that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can see these private messages. It’s why we don’t keep logs of who everyone’s messaging or calling. We also can’t see your shared location and we don’t share your contacts with Facebook.
WhatsApp says in today’s post that the new privacy policy will not expand its availability to share user data with Facebook. Instead, it wants to provide more transparency with how data is shared in general, especially as it relates to messaging a business using the app.
With these updates, none of that is changing. Instead, the update includes new options people will have to message a business on WhatsApp, and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data. While not everyone shops with a business on WhatsApp today, we think that more people will choose to do so in the future and it’s important people are aware of these services. This update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook.
WhatsApp says no accounts will be suspended or deleted on February 8, the previous cutoff to accept the new privacy policy. Instead, the company is giving users more time to accept the new privacy policy.
Here’s WhatsApp on Twitter as well:
We want to address some rumors and be 100% clear we continue to protect your private messages with end-to-end encryption. pic.twitter.com/6qDnzQ98MP
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) January 12, 2021
WhatsApp first informed users of the changing privacy policy in January of this year. A few days later, following some initial feedback, the messaging app published an FAQ regarding the changes, trying to clear things up. However, that didn’t go over as well as they hoped. Now, the company is delaying the rollout of the planned changes, and hopes to try and still show that it’s not trying to dump all user data into the lap of Facebook.
Still, WhatsApp is rolling out the changes. Have you dropped the app and moved onto another messaging app?