WhatsApp will delay launch of company update features after backlash over privacy

(Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp delays update aimed at increasing business transactions on the platform after a storm of concern from users who feared the messaging platform would water down its privacy policy in the process.

WhatsApp users received a notification this month that it was preparing a new privacy policy and terms, and it reserved the right to share certain user data with the Facebook app.

This sparked global protests and a rush of new users to competing private messaging apps including Telegram and Signal.

WhatsApp announced on Friday that it would delay the launch of the new policy until May from February, that the update focused on the ability for users to communicate with businesses, and that the update did not affect businesses. personal conversations, which will continue to have end-to-end encryption. .

“This update does not extend our ability to share data with Facebook,” he said in a statement.

“While not everyone purchases with a business on WhatsApp today, we believe more people will choose to do so in the future and it’s important that people are aware of these services,” he says.

Facebook has deployed business tools on WhatsApp over the past year to increase revenue for higher-growth units like WhatsApp and Instagram while bringing e-commerce infrastructure together across the company.

Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $ 19 billion in 2014 but is slow to monetize it.

The app already shares certain categories of personal data, including the user’s phone number and IP address, with Facebook.

“We don’t keep logs of everyone’s messages or calls. We also can’t see your shared location and we don’t share your contacts with Facebook, ”he says.

WhatsApp said in October that it would start offering in-app purchases through Facebook Shops and offer businesses that use its customer service messaging tools the option of storing those messages on Facebook servers.

WhatsApp said at the time that chats with a company using the new hosting service would not be protected by the app’s end-to-end encryption.