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Criticized after announcing a change in its privacy policy, the online messaging application WhatsApp has decided to postpone the entry into force of its new conditions of use for three months, thus trying to reassure its users about the protection of their personal data, it reports. AFP.
“We will postpone the date on which users must read and accept the terms of use”, Announced this Friday the representatives of the WhatsApp application in an article published on their official blog.
The changes, which should have gone into effect on February 8, will go into effect starting May 15.
Last week, WhatsApp has asked its roughly 2 billion users to agree to the new terms of use, which allow the app to share customers’ personal data with its parent company, Facebook. In case of refusal, WhatsApp users were informed that they will not be able to access their accounts from February 8.
WhatsApp explains what the new update means
That decision was interpreted by numerous critics as an attempt by the app to share more personal data of WhatsApp users with parent company Facebook, which bought WhatsApp in 2014.
Friday, WhatsApp wanted to assure users that the new update “does not strengthen our ability to share personal data with Facebook”, but rather aims to help companies better communicate with their customers through this platform.
The application especially wants advertising companies to be able to sell their products directly on WhatsApp, as is already happening in India, the company’s largest market in California, with 400 million users.
WhatsApp conversations will continue to be protected by the “end-to-end” encryption principle, and neither Facebook nor WhatsApp will be able to view these private messages, app representatives said., cited by Agerpres.
Last week’s announcement caused panic and a wave of revolt among many users, who have declared themselves alarmed by the abandonment of the founding values of WhatsApp. .
The platform tried to calm the “fire” sparked by last week’s announcement through a series of reassuring announcements and ad campaigns, but competing services such as Signal and Telegram took advantage of that confusion and made their store downloads public. on-line. spectacular increases.
Critics from Turkey and Italy
The Turkish competition authority announced on Monday the opening of an investigation against WhatsApp and Facebook, also requesting the suspension of this update of the conditions of use.
In Italy, the Privacy Authority found that WhatsApp had not clearly communicated to its customers the nature of these changes.
“The conditions of use and the new measures aimed at privacy do not allow users to understand the changes that will be introduced, nor the specific way in which their personal data will be treated as of February 8,” the Italian institution announced on Thursday .
Publisher: Georgiana Marina
