WhatsApp will go ahead with its controversial policy update

WhatsApp is trying to implement a privacy policy change on its app and ever since WhatsApp gave users a deadline to accept the new policies, it had faced extreme criticism and this led to a lot of misinformation about the data that WhatsApp will share.

All this confusion and mishandling of the privacy update led some users to leave WhatsApp and switch to other alternative messaging apps like Telegram and Signal, with the latter receiving a huge surge in its user base.

Since then WhatsApp has been trying hard to explain to users the real meaning of this new privacy policy and that none of their private chats will be shared with anyone, not even Facebook. The company has already announced that it would delay the enforcement of its policies till May 15th.

WhatsApp has explained that the new update focuses more on how businesses treat your data if you contact a business on the app. Businesses can see your messages and also if they are using any third-party app, then the data will be shared with those too.

WhatsApp has said that the company is spending time gathering user feedback and listening to the concerns of the people in various countries. WhatsApp has clarified that the company cannot read their messages as their messages were end-to-end encrypted.

WhatsApp also started showing up the details about the privacy update in the users’ status section. Now the company has said that it would roll out a new method of communication to users, by showing an in-app banner.

The banner will ask the users to re-review the policies, after clicking the banner users will be shown a detailed summary of the changes and how its integration with Facebook does not impact user’s personal data.

Eventually, WhatsApp will begin to remind users to review and accept its updates to keep using WhatsApp. According to its prior announcement, it won’t be enforcing the new policy until May 15.

In the blogpost WhatsApp said:

Other apps say they’re better because they know even less information than WhatsApp. We believe people are looking for apps to be both reliable and safe, even if that requires WhatsApp having some limited data. We strive to be thoughtful on the decisions we make and we’ll continue to develop new ways of meeting these responsibilities with less information, not more.

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