WhatsApp advances the date of acceptance of its new conditions to May 15

WhatsApp has announced that it is advancing the date of acceptance of its new terms and conditions to May 15. The previous date was February 8.

The company says this is due to all the confusion and misinformation around its latest update and that it will use the time to clear up misinformation about how privacy and security work on WhatsApp. They will then gradually go to the people to review the policy at their own pace before May 15.

Earlier this month, WhatsApp started displaying its new terms and privacy policy screen when you launched the app. The screen instructed users to click Agree and agree to the new terms, which go into effect on February 8. You can close the pop-up, but you’ll need to accept them if you want to continue using the service after February 8.

This caused massive panic among users, with many choosing to switch to Telegram and Signal. Much of it was fueled by misinformation and hysteria, as few seemed to have actually read the new policy changes.

As WhatsApp has repeatedly said since the announcement of the new policy, the new changes only affect those who interact with WhatsApp Business accounts on the service. These business accounts can now use Facebook hosting services to manage their WhatsApp chats, use Facebook branded commerce features such as stores, and display an ad on Facebook to message the business directly on WhatsApp. In each of these cases, Facebook will now collect information about you if you interact with these businesses and their advertisements, such as by clicking on any other advertisement on Facebook.

WhatsApp says the new policy doesn’t change users’ messaging or calling other users or groups, as these terms have not been changed. Your messages and calls will continue to be encrypted and your messages will not be stored on Facebook’s servers. It’s not that WhatsApp doesn’t share any data with Facebook; it’s just that the amount of shared data doesn’t change with this update. Basically, if it wasn’t a problem for you before, it shouldn’t be now.

Of course, most people don’t even know that WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, let alone share data with them, so it wasn’t surprising that they panicked when the pop-up popped up and basically went. told everyone they needed to start sharing data with them. Facebook or stop using the service. Some people even assumed that their accounts would be deleted after February 8, which of course does not happen.

Either way, Facebook is not changing its policy. The company stresses that the new changes only affect those who interact with work accounts and have no impact on other users. So it’s just a matter of extending the date, probably hoping people would have forgotten about it by then and be more willing to click the accept button.

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