At the beginning of the year, WhatsApp updated its Conditions and Privacy policy and announced that it was going to start sharing its users’ data with Facebook, which acquired the application almost seven years ago. As of this May 15, the deadline that had been set to accept the new application policy, those who did not want the social network to have access to WhatsApp information had no choice but to stop using the application.
This was because accepting the new terms was a mandatory condition on the part of the courier company. Although the accounts that did not accept the new policy were not going to be eliminated, as they clarified from the company, they were gradually losing functions to the extent that those accounts will end up being considered as “inactive because they will not be able to send or receive messages.”
It should be noted that accounts that have been inactive for 120 days are deleted, according to WhatsApp policy. And in this way, in the end, the accounts of those who resist the new company policy will be eliminated. But for those who still doubt whether or not to accept the new Conditions and Privacy policies, we warn you that the famous messaging application will once again change its policies for the benefit of users.
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The WaBetaInfo portal -specialist in advancing all the news of this app- explained that, in the coming days, WhatsApp will present the new conditions of service before sending a message to a commercial account “that uses a secure Facebook service to manage chats “. As shown in the image, a notice will invite you to review and accept the new privacy rules. If not, the user will not be able to communicate with the commercial profile.
In this way, WhatsApp decided to divide the conditions that come into play when using its service. It should be remembered that since May 15, all those who did not accept the new terms of the company began to receive reminders to do so. In case they refused, they would begin to lose functions, although from WhatsApp they clarified that this will not happen to all users at the same time.
The first thing those affected saw is that they could not access the chat list, but they could answer phone and video calls. Also, if they had the notifications activated, they could touch them to read them or reply to a message. After several weeks with this limited functionality, they stopped receiving incoming phone and video calls and messages. They then became inactive and lost their account.
In February of this year, notifications began to reach users warning them that WhatsApp will be able to “use Facebook’s hosted services to store and manage their WhatsApp chats” and partner with the social network “to offer product integrations.” This, however, generated great rejection because it appears as a new invasion of privacy by the company of Mark Zuckerberg.
The message also notified that, after the indicated date, “you must accept the updates to continue using WhatsApp.” Among the data that the application now shares with Facebook is the user’s phone number, the basic information of their profile, the location of the device, the contacts and the shared statuses.
But while the company was determined that everyone accept the conditions, all this changed in recent days. With the arrival of the new update, users will be able to decide if they want to accept the terms and conditions without the fear that their account will be limited, so they can continue to have unrestricted conversations with family and friends.
The only drawback that these users will have is that they will not be able to exchange messages with companies that use cloud providers to manage chats, this regardless of whether this management is carried out by Facebook or third parties. At the moment there is no specific date for the entry into force of these changes. But when this happens, WhatsApp users will be able to continue chatting with all their contacts without accepting the new conditions.
According to WaBetaInfo the messaging service will roll out the changes “very soon” in an update for the iPhone and Android. The truth is that this uncertainty caused in recent months, added to communication failures as a result of the new conditions, led many WhatsApp users to switch to other services such as Telegram and Signal. Despite this, it is still the most used in the world with more than 2 billion active users.