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So far, users must accept the new conditions before February 8 if they want to continue using the Facebook chat service. Now the new data protection guideline will not apply until May 15, as WhatsApp announced on Friday (local time). According to WhatsApp, the changes are mainly about creating better ways to communicate with companies. End-to-end encryption, with which chat content is only visible in clear text to participating users, but not even to WhatsApp itself, will not be affected.
Increased competition
It is also not about extended data forwarding to Facebook. Outside the EU, WhatsApp user data has been sent to Facebook for advertising purposes or to improve products, although since 2016.
WhatsApp is the most successful chat service in the world with more than two billion users, followed by Facebook Messenger (1.3 billion). In recent weeks, WhatsApp rivals such as Telegram, Signal or the Swiss short message service Threema reported strong growth in new customers, because users left WhatsApp after the announcement of the new data protection directive. WhatsApp complained about the dissemination of false information in this regard, which they want to clarify in mid-May.
