It is said that from today onwards WhatsApp will start taking action against the users who have not accepted the privacy policy. Even though it won’t remove the account of users but take away some basic features, users still are in two minds about affirming the privacy policy as there is too little data on what it truly signifies. In the meantime, Signal, an encrypted messaging app, fully made use of the chance to draw users to its own platform.
Few days before the May 15 deadline, which was being feared by many, WhatsApp declared that it would not delete the accounts of users even if they don’t accept the privacy policy by May 15. Today WhatsApp recalled users that it won’t delete their account by putting up a cheeky update on Twitter.
“*checks calendar. pours coffee*. OK. Let’s do this. No, we can’t see your personal messages. No, we won’t delete your account. Yes, you can accept at any time,” WhatsApp wrote.
Signal app which is a complete opponent of WhatsApp retweeted the post and wrote, “*checks calendar. pours coffee.* Today’s a great day to switch to privacy.”
Ever since it has declared its new privacy policy, WhatsApp has been at the getting end of users. At first, the users were notified about it through an in-app notification in January to accept the privacy policy by February 8. But, the lack of transparency around the same created a disturbance amongst users and most of them moved to other messaging apps including Signal, Telegram. The users felt that WhatsApp will share the private conversation of users with Facebook which made the company postpone the date to May 15.
But, now the terms and conditions have been changed. At first, WhatsApp had given a term to users to accept the privacy policy to continue using the app, but now it has said it won’t remove the account. As WhatsApp might not remove the account, it will take away some basic features and turn it into a mannequin app.
“After a few weeks of limited functionality, you won’t be able to receive incoming calls or notifications and WhatsApp will stop sending messages and calls to your phone. At that point, users will have to choose: either they accept the new terms, or they are in effect prevented from using WhatsApp at all,” WhatsApp told The Guardian in a statement.
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