Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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WhatsApp to Block Message Service if Users Don’t Accept Privacy Policy

The popular messenger app WhatsApp is back in the news due to its controversial privacy policy. Earlier, the tech giant had given the deadline of February 8, to users for accepting the new policy. However, due to the massive backlash and criticism regarding the new data-sharing policies the social media company had to delay the launch till May 15. Now, WhatsApp has come up with what seems to be a better strategy to inform the users about what its new privacy policy is all about and how it will be impact the users through the banners shared via status.

Consequences of Not Accepting the New WhatsApp Privacy Policy

Despite, the delay in the launch of the new privacy policy the users still face the option of taking it or leave it. According to tech media reports, the users who will not accept the privacy policy will not be able to receive or send the messages. However, they will be able to make and receive calls. Further, the inability to accept the privacy policy for 120 days will likely make the users’ accounts inactive.

It seems that making the users’ accounts inactive if they don’t accept the new terms and conditions related to data sharing policy may not be the best bet for the tech giant. Users are already moving towards WhatsApp’s alternates Signal and Telegram. In January, when WhatsApp had announced its privacy policy for the first time, these alternate messenger apps had seen a surge in their popularity among users; this was because they also offered end-to-end encryption without jeopardizing the users’ data.

What Is So Wrong About The New Privacy Policy?

Users raised several concerns about the new WhatsApp Privacy Policy after it came to the limelight for the first time. There was a suspicion that WhatsApp chats wouldn’t remain end-to-end encrypted or hidden anymore; instead, the company employees would be able to read them. This suspicion was represented well in some of the hilarious WhatsApp memes as well. However, the company has claimed that the new update has nothing to do with employees reading the users’ personal messages or WhatsApp sharing the chats with its parent company Facebook. In fact, it was about users agreeing to share the transaction history with WhatsApp taking place via WhatsApp through the business accounts.

The messnger app already shares few users information like smartphone’s IP address with the Facebook.

Apparently, there doesn’t seem something wrong about the new privacy policy of the messnger’s app in terms of data issues related to personal chats. However, sharing the transaction histroy or even the device’s IP is not something that most of the users will agree to easily. Also the new privacy policy doesn’t apply on the users’ from European Union due to data protection regulations GDPR in the territory. Therefore, users can question how come something unacceptable to the users of the particular region can be acceptable to the users from the rest of the world.

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