WhatsApp scraps May 15 deadline for accepting controversial new privateness coverage

WhatsApp has scrapped its May 15 deadline for customers to just accept its controversial privateness coverage replace, in keeping with a PTI report. Further, WhatsApp mentioned that it’ll not be deleting accounts of customers who don’t settle for the brand new phrases.
WhatsApp had confronted extreme backlash over person considerations that knowledge was being shared with mother or father firm Facebook.
“No accounts will be deleted on May 15 because of this update and no one in India will lose functionality of WhatsApp either. We will follow up with reminders to people over the next several weeks,” a WhatsApp spokesperson mentioned in an emailed response to a question on Friday, reported PTI.
The spokesperson added that whereas a “majority of users who have received the new terms of service have accepted them”, some folks haven’t had the prospect to take action but. However, the corporate didn’t make clear the rationale behind the choice and didn’t reveal the variety of customers who’ve accepted the phrases to date.
 WhatsApp’s privateness coverage controversy
In January this 12 months, WhatsApp began pushing out an replace on its app, asking customers to just accept the brand new privateness coverage. Initially the corporate gave a deadline of February 8, 2021, however later it revised the deadline to May 15. WhatsApp’s privateness coverage centered on addressing knowledge sharing with its mother or father firm Facebook, particularly the place enterprise accounts have been involved.
WhatsApp made it clear that it was not making any modifications to its end-to-end encryption, which is current on all personal chats. Nor did it plan to share any metadata or name logs or person messages with Facebook, however there was a number of confusion across the coverage. A whole lot of misinformation was additionally unfold about WhatsApp, mockingly a number of this was shared on the platform itself.

WhatsApp was compelled to problem an in depth FAQ clarifying that person privateness was not impacted in anyway. However, it had defined that when customers work together with companies on the platform, that info might be used for advertising functions, together with doable “advertising on Facebook.”
The related portion of the coverage learn as, “Businesses you interact with using our Services may provide us with information about their interactions with you. We require each of these businesses to act in accordance with applicable law when providing any information to us.” 
It additionally famous, “In addition, some businesses might be working with third-party service providers (which may include Facebook) to help manage their communications with their customers.” 
Still WhatsApp’s clarifications did nothing to stem the outrage in opposition to the privateness coverage. The consequence was a spike of customers transferring to Telegram and Signal in India as each of the apps gained a number of recognition through the interval.
Further, a case was filed within the Delhi High Court by the Central Government in India as effectively. In a current listening to, the federal government additionally mentioned that the brand new privateness coverage introduced by WhatsApp in January violates the 2011 IT Rules on 5 counts, and urged it to restrain the messaging app from implementing this coverage.
Now, it seems to be like WhatsApp has deserted all plans of implementing this coverage altogether. Given the backlash it has confronted over the replace, this seems to be like a clever transfer.
With inputs from PTI