WhatsApp has revealed how it will gradually halt the accounts of users who do not accept the impending changes to the platform’s privacy policy, which will take effect on May 15.
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New WhatsApp banner explaining changes in privacy policy
According to an email seen by TechCrunch to one of its business partners, WhatsApp said it would “gradually ask” users who have not yet accepted policy changes to comply with the new terms in the coming weeks, “to have full WhatsApp functionality” from May 15 .
If they still do not accept the terms, “for a short period, these users will be able to receive calls and notifications, but will not be able to read or send messages from the application,” the company added in the note.
The company confirmed the TechCrunch that the note accurately characterizes his plan, and that the “short time” will last for a few weeks. WhatsApp’s policy for inactive users states that accounts are “generally deleted after 120 days of inactivity”.
WhatsApp announced its new terms of use at the beginning of last month, and the changes at the time were interpreted by many users as meaning that the platform would share its messages with the parent company Facebook.
In fact, private messages between users will remain encrypted from end to end, so they can only be accessed by those in the conversation. WhatsApp also allows users to send messages to companies, however, and the same protections do not apply to those messages. The data in business messages may be used for commercial purposes, such as targeting ads on Facebook, with some data stored on Facebook servers.
The misperception caused a reaction among users of Facebook’s proprietary platform, causing an exodus to rival messaging apps like Telegram and Signal, both of whom were quick to exploit the situation by persuading former users with more conventional chat features.
Since then, WhatsApp has used status updates in the app to clarify that the update does not affect data sharing with Facebook in terms of user chats or profile information, with the new terms applying to those using the business chat.
In the weeks prior to May, WhatsApp will start launching a small banner in the app (photo above) that users can tap to review privacy policies.
Touching the banner will show a more detailed summary of the changes, including more details on how WhatsApp works with Facebook. The Facebook-owned company says it will eventually remind users to read the new policy and accept it to continue using the app.