WhatsApp is Postponing Its New Privacy Policy Change to Allow People to ‘Gradually Review the Policy’

By
Annette Anthony
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WhatsApp kinda threw every user they had under the bus when they announced that they were going to share their data with Facebook.

The implementation was supposed to take place on 8 Feb 2021.

And then the whole world went amok. People were deleting the app and switching to alternatives like Telegram. Wei, even Elon Musk told his 40-over million followers to jump ship to Signal.

With so many users saying sayonara to the messenger giant, it’s no wonder that today, they announced that they’ve postponed their data-sharing change.

Here’s some vital information you’ll want to know about their update’s postponement:

  • All your personal chats are still protected with end-to-end encryption. Facebook and WhatsApp are therefore not able to see any of your private texts
  • There are no logs in place to see who’s messaging and calling one another
  • WhatsApp doesn’t share your contact details with Facebook
  • WhatsApp also cannot see your shared location, if any
  • The updates actually are for adding new options for people to message business accounts

They said, “No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8. We’re also going to do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security works on WhatsApp. We’ll then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15.”

So basically 8 Feb 2021 is no longer a special date. It’s probably the date you’ll want to set a reminder to make sure you get your girlfriend her Valentine’s Day gift.

Increased Numbers of New Sign-Ups in Rival Messenger Services

Pavel Durov, the Russian man behind Telegram, reportedly shared that the number of people changing their platforms was massive. In what he termed as the greatest digital migration to ever take place in history, there was a rough sum of 25 million brand new users in just 3 days.

By the way, this has happened in Korea before. Watch this video to the end to know how Telegram got popular in the first place (and please subscribe to our YouTube channel for more informative videos!):

Signal also shared the same profitable predicament: They had so many new users that the app started having tech issues. But that was yesterday’s story.

The team of developers at Signal worked hard and rolled out a bunch of massive upgrades to sustain the added flow of clients. These included:

  • A wallpaper feature that let their users change the background of every single chat they had. You don’t have to use the same sunflower picture for all your convos, yall.
  • There’s also an About segment where you can create an introduction for yourself. Talk about your obsession with Netflix’s Korea dramas, your love for a good mamak mee goreng or your cat. Add in your profile pic and name and you’re all set!
  • Have a call with up to 8 persons at a go now, instead of the usual 5 before the latest update.
  • Make your chats that much livelier with a fantastic set of animated stickers!
  • The most important info – there’s end-to-end encryption for video group chats as well as voice ones.

So, while WhatsApp is still posting adverts in India’s newspapers to ensure that the changes only affect business owners and not the consumer end, it’ll take some time before they gain back the confidence of their users, both current and former ones.

I mean, we all know how Facebook is when it comes to privacy violations right?

Mark Zuckerberg: Goody Feed has just been banned by Facebook. Again.

See?

Featured Image: Rahul Ramachandram / Shutterstock.com

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Annette Anthony
Email: [email protected]