Popular messaging app WhatsApp, which has suffered a heavy backlash in India and around the world over its recent privacy policy, has confirmed its stand to move ahead with the controversial “take it or leave it” policy. On Friday, the Facebook-owned company also revealed its plans for users who do not accept the terms by the May 15 deadline.
Earlier this week, WhatsApp had said that it will allow users to review the policy at their own pace. On Friday, it said that in case of users who don’t accept the terms by the appointed deadline, WhatsApp would “slowly ask” such users to comply with the new terms if “they wanted to have full functionality of WhatsApp” starting May 15. If they do not accept the terms by then, “for a short time, these users will be able to receive calls and notifications, but will not be able to read or send messages from the app.” This seems to be a polite way of telling, “If you want to continue reading and sending messages on WhatsApp, you must agree to the privacy policy.”
In a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page, WhatsApp said regarding users who would not agree to the policy by the deadline, “To give you enough time to review changes at your own pace and convenience, we’ve extended the effective date to May 15th. If you haven’t accepted by then, WhatsApp will not delete your account. However, you won’t have full functionality of WhatsApp until you accept. For a short time, you’ll be able to receive calls and notifications, but won’t be able to read or send messages from the app.”
WhatsApp deletes accounts of inactive users after 120 days of inactivity.
Earlier, WhatsApp had kept the deadline on February, which it had postponed due to severe backlash from its users. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to both WhatsApp and Facebook over its privacy policy and warned that it would intervene if necessary to protect the privacy of the Indian citizens.
In a blog post in January, WhatsApp had written, “We’ve heard from so many people how much confusion there is around our recent update. There’s been a lot of misinformation causing concern and we want to help everyone understand our principles and the facts.”
WhatsApp’s privacy policy allows it and its parent Facebook to share user data for their own ends. The company on Thursday had said it would start reminding people to review and accept the policy, and that it had conveyed to the Centre that it remained committed to the protection of the privacy of users, ensuring that the platform remained safe and secure for its users.
“Due to misinformation and based on feedback from our users, we have pushed back the timeline of acceptance of WhatsApp’s terms of service and privacy policy to the 15th of May. In the meantime, we continue to engage with the government and are grateful for the opportunity to answer questions that we received from them,” WhatsApp said in an e-mailed statement.
WhatsApp has also said that it will soon launch an in-app banner to convey the correct message of the policy once again.
