There is nothing new to say about WhatsApp’s popularity as it is one of the fastest messaging apps over the internet today, having 2.5 active users worldwide. But do you know WhatsApp has a Privacy & Policy that is often updated to improve the data security for the users? The latest update of WhatsApp’s Privacy & Policy is 2021 that is the most controversial as of now.
It gives users a deadline, either accept the privacy and policy or risk losing all the key WhatsApp features, as the company will stop calling or messaging contacts. So what is the new Privacy & Policy of Whatsapp?
A Quick Recap to the New WhatsApp’s Privacy & Policy
The company has reiterated that the app is end-to-end encrypted, and it doesn’t have access to your private chat, calls, and location. Also, the company doesn’t share your personal information and private chats with its parent company – Facebook. But the new update says-
- WhatsApp can use some ‘Business conversations’ hosted with social media advertisements.
- Also, when you communicate with a business by phone, email, or WhatsApp, the company can access your information and may use that information for marketing purposes such as Facebook advertising.
- Lastly, WhatsApp says, it will clearly label conversations with businesses choosing to use hosting services from Facebook. It further added- Messaging with business is different from messaging with family and friends.
WhatsApp’s new Privacy & Policy has become controversial in India, and there is also some misinformation spread about WhatsApp related to this.
What Happens When You Don’t Accept the Privacy & Policy?
The company said- the users will be repeatedly reminded to accept the new policy whenever they open the app, and if they don’t accept it, WhatsApp will stop the use of services one by one. The services that will be deactivated includes-
- You cannot answer voice and video calls.
- You cannot make audio or video calls.
- If you have notifications enabled, you cannot read and reply to them with a single tap.
If you don’t accept WhatsApp’s new Privacy & Policy, the company will stop your Calls, Messages, and even Notifications.
Further, those who accept the policy can continue the use of WhatsApp but they won’t experience any difference. But, if you keep refusing to accept the policy and install an app on your phone, WhatsApp won’t delete your account, but it will be automatically deactivated after 120 days due to inactivity.
Why is WhatsApp’s New Privacy Policy a Big Deal?
It’s all about sharing user’s data on another platform. WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook back in 2014. The new Privacy & Policy was later released in 2016 that said it will now share your contact details to Facebook so that Facebook can find better friend suggestions and show you relevant ads.
That means WhatsApp is already sharing the information with its parent company, and now in 2021, it wants to even share its users business data to Facebook that include WhatsApp Payments and transaction data. Though the company made it very clear that WhatsApp didn’t change its security features, as users’ chats are safe and calls are end-to-end encrypted. So those who wonder How to record WhatsApp voice calls, let us tell you there is no chance that WhatsApp will add any default feature for this. You can go with alternative options such as screen recording etc.
Also, the contacts are not shared with Facebook and neither Facebook nor WhatsApp can access your messages and calls. Unnecessarily collecting data in the means of showing relevant ads on Facebook has raised suspicion among its users. The Government thinks that it is a breach of the security of the users and leak of their business data. This is why WhatsApp’s Privacy & Policy 2021 update is the most controversial one till now.
This is the new Privacy & Policy of Whatsapp that the company wants its users to accept. Otherwise, it will disable their services. Let’s see how many changes a company can make in its new update after controversy.
