After causing a huge virtual melting with the announcement of its new privacy policy, and then postponing the implementation of the said policy due to online anger, WhatsApp has spent the last few weeks trying not to cause problems. However, he did just revealed what will happen to users who do not accept its new privacy policy by the May 15 deadline.
It appears that WhatsApp has sent an email to some of its trading partners informing them that it will “slowly ask” users to accept the new privacy policy “in order to have full functionality” of the application, according to TechCrunch, who saw an email and confirmed its veracity with WhatsApp. The email also indicates a Public FAQs about WhatsApp the page entitled “What happens on the date of entry into force?”
The FAQ page says that WhatsApp will not delete the accounts of users who do not accept the new conditions, but will not be able to use it as they normally do.
“If you have not accepted by then, WhatsApp will not delete your account. However, you will not have the full functionality of WhatsApp until you accept it. For a short period of time, you will be able to receive calls and notifications, but you will not be able to read or send messages from the application “, wrote WhatsApp.
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If “for a short time” part it scratched your head, WhatsApp worked out, in a way. Users who do not accept the new privacy policy by May 15 will be considered inactive and submissive user WhatsApp existing policy on this front, as detailed below.
“To maintain security, limit data retention and protect the privacy of our users, WhatsApp accounts are generally deleted after 120 days of inactivity,” says WhatsApp. “Content stored locally on a user’s device before deleting the account will remain until WhatsApp is deleted from the device. When a user re-registers for WhatsApp on the same device, the locally stored content will reappear. ”
Now, after reading this, it still wasn’t really clear whether WhatsApp will delete the accounts of people who have not accepted their privacy policy after 120 days. Gizmodo contacted WhatsApp to request clarification. We will make sure we update this blog if we hear.
In addition to keeping his head down, WhatsApp was also trying to calm him down users that he has no bad plans to share his personal data with the parent company, Facebook. (It should be noted that tThe company shares basic metadata with Facebook, such as phones that make anonymous identifiers, since 2016). To be clear, the the new privacy policy of the application does not affect users which only uses the app to send messages to friends and family right now. The changes only apply to companies that use WhatsApp to communicate with their customers.
On Thursday, WhatsApp has announced that it will start displaying a banner in the application, providing more information about its privacy policy “that people can read at their own pace.”
“Finally, we will start reminding people to review and accept these updates in order to continue using WhatsApp,” WhatsApp said.
Interestingly, in the ad, WhatsApp mentioned that it is important for people to know “how we can offer WhatsApp for free”. The company said it charges companies to provide “customer service” in the app and involves Facebook so that companies can manage their in-app inventory.
While some users may be outraged by WhatsApp bornw privacy policy – which, let’s remember, does not affect individual users yet – this business update is an important reminder that few things are truly free in technology. If a service or application claims to be free, remember that you probably are paying for it with your data.