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In a shock announcement today, it’s been noted that WhatsApp has scrapped its May 15 deadline for users to accept its controversial privacy policy update. The company has said that everyone will still have access to their WhatsApp account. They confirm that “not accepting the terms will not lead to deletion of accounts”.
WhatsApp Will Let You Keep Your Account
When the privacy policy update was released earlier this year, WhatsApp faced severe backlash over user concerns. The most concerning issue being data was being shared with parent company Facebook.
It looks like WhatsApp is caving to the pressure and cancelling its threats to deactivate accounts.
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A WhatsApp spokesperson told PTI that no accounts will be deleted on May 15 for not accepting the policy update.
While the majority of users who have received the new terms of service have accepted them, we appreciate some people haven’t had the chance to do so yet. No accounts will be deleted on May 15 because of this update. Also, no one will lose the functionality of WhatsApp either. We will follow up with reminders to people over the next several weeks.
This is not the first time they are prompting users to accept the terms of service. The longer they delay this, the less likely it looks like they will go ahead with this entire plan.
The company is still yet to give a good reason behind the decision. They also declined to divulge the number of users who have accepted the terms so far. If I were to guess it’s probably too low to risk a massive worldwide account deactivation.
Until the next time they warn us, keep using WhatsApp as you were.
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