The privacy policy the messenger company intends to release on May 15th — users who agree to its terms of service will continue to access the messaging platform’s complete functionality.
WhatsApp provided detailed answers to frequently asked questions about none compliance with its latest privacy policy — detailed information of what the messenger company intends to do is posted to their FAQ page.
According to WhatsApp, they will officially restrict the functionalities of its messaging platform on May 15th. The access to read and reply messages on the messenger app becomes finite to restricted users.
Although restricted users are still allowed to access essential features such as seeing notifications and receiving calls, WhatsApp said the functionality would only be available for a short time. According to WhatsApp, functionalities like receiving calls are exclusively accessible for few weeks.
According to critics, they believe that the messenger company’s parent company, Facebook, instigated the policy update and will likely share accumulated data tied with its new privacy policy cosigned with Facebook.
WhatsApp messenger interface is designed with an end-to-end encryption algorithm — chats transpired between two people are accessible and visible to the parties involved.
WhatsApp acknowledges it usually shares content with its parent company — WhatsApp noted that message data under its business messenger platform is not disseminated but stored under Facebook’s servers or cloud storage. WhatsApp’s parent company usually uses such data to process its advertising business.
Nonetheless, since Facebook acquired the messenger company in 2016, WhatsApp keeps permitting its parent company to access its data, such as phone numbers, with free-will.
The intending privacy policy was supposed to have been active since February 8th. Still, in context to its user-base protest, WhatsApp decided to delay the release of its new privacy policy — the policy is also postponed for clarity of the proposed approach.
Last week, WhatsApp disclosed they would gradually provide a necessary explanation to its user-base anticipating its policy update. Based on clarity, WhatsApp is indicating a mandatory in-app ban to restricted users as a means to explain the non-compliance of its privacy policy.
WhatsApp parent company, Facebook, also commented on the matter with further information about its flexible policy — restricted user’s account will not be deleted from the messaging platform. After the due date (May 15th), users will still get to agree to WhatsApp’s terms of service.
PS: WhatsApp will only delete an account if the restricted account exceeds 120 days of inactivity, in line with the new privacy policy.
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