Let’s Try This Again: WhatsApp Preps Users for Changes to Terms of Service, Privacy Policy

WhatsApp’s much-maligned updates to its terms of service and privacy policy, pushed back from its original Feb. 8 deadline for acceptance by users, will now take effect May 15, and the Facebook-owned messaging application detailed steps it will take to provide more information, while taking a shot at some of its competitors. The first attempt to clear up what the terms mean for users fell short, leading to calls for users to opt for alternatives in the messaging space such as Signal and Telegram, with the latter gaining over 25 million new users worldwide in a 72-hour period in January. WhatsApp addressed those calls in a blog post Thursday, writing, “During this time, we understand that some people may check out other apps to see what they have to offer. We’ve seen some of our competitors try to get away with claiming that they can’t see people’s messages. If an app doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption by default, that means it can read your messages. Other apps say they’re better because they know even less information than WhatsApp. We believe people are looking for apps to be both reliable and safe, even if that requires WhatsApp having some limited data. We strive to be thoughtful on the decisions we make and we’ll continue to develop new ways of meeting these responsibilities with less information, not more.” The updates to WhatsApp’s policies cover communications with businesses via the platform and the fact that WhatsApp said it would use information from those chats with businesses for marketing purposes, potentially including advertising on Facebook. Those conversations with businesses are not end-to-end encrypted, and they are transmitted via secure hosting services affiliated with Facebook. Many users interpreted the upcoming changes to mean that WhatsApp would share more of their data with its parent company, including their private messages, which is not the case. In the coming weeks, WhatsApp users will begin seeing a small, in-app banner prompting them to review the new policies again, which the company said users preferred over the full-screen popup alert it used the first time around. Users will see a more detailed explanation of the policy changes, including more information on how WhatsApp works with Facebook. WhatsApp users will eventually be reminded about the May 15 deadline to review and accept the policy updates in order to continue using the app. The company wrote in its blog post, “We also think it’s important that people know how we can provide WhatsApp for free. Every day, millions of people start a WhatsApp chat with a business because it’s easier to do so than placing a phone call or exchanging emails. We charge businesses to provide customer service on WhatsApp—not people. Some shopping features involve Facebook so that businesses can manage their inventory across apps. We display more information directly in WhatsApp so that people can choose if they want to engage with businesses or not.”

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Let’s Try This Again: WhatsApp Preps Users for Changes to Terms of Service, Privacy Policy

Delayed from the original Feb. 8 date due to confusion, they are now set to take effect May 15

David Cohen

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David Cohen