The key date is the 15 May.
WhatsApp set for this Saturday the time limit that gives its millions of users to accept the new terms and conditions of use that caused a wave of criticism to the platform earlier this year.
With its new terms, the platform is asking its users (except those residing in the European region) to agree to share data with Facebook , the parent company of the messaging service.
As of this Friday, those who do not accept the new update will begin to have a limited service .
“ No user’s account will be deleted nor will access to WhatsApp functions be removed on 15 May due to this update ”, says the platform in its w eb.
But what happens if you don’t accept the new conditions of use?
Access through notifications
As of 15 May, those who do not accept the new terms and conditions will not be able to access their list of chats when opening the service.
“But you can answer calls and video calls . If you have the notifications activated, you can touch them to read or reply to messages , as well as to return missed calls or video calls ”, says the company.
Those users will be able to interact with their contacts through on-screen notifications.
If after “a few weeks” the user still does not accept the update, will no longer receive calls or notifications and “WhatsApp will stop sending messages and calls to your phone. ”
The limitations do not them will occur to all users at the same time , depending on the company.
“Persistent” reminder
WhatsApp points out that in In recent weeks it has been sending users a notification to “review and accept the changes” if they have not done so.
But in a few days, the reminder ” will become persistent ” until the user makes a decision.
Although it will not delete the account of those who do not accept, the platform will apply its policy for inactive accounts in force.
These rules say that if a user has not used the platform for more than 120 days, the account is deleted “in order to maintain security, limit data retention and protect user privacy.”
The users can n export your chat history as an alternative to avoid losing your conversations.
The controversial new terms
At the beginning of this year, WhatsApp announced the changes that would come in its terms and conditions of service.
It indicated that Some data from the accounts of its users – such as contacts or profile data – will be shared with its parent company, Facebook, and that it can do the same with its Instagram platforms and Messenger.
Users from the European Union and the United Kingdom, although they must accept the new conditions, they will not see the changes applied to their accounts.
The new conditions generated a wave of questions about the privacy conditions. Some users started looking for alternatives, such as Telegram or Signal.
Faced with criticism, WhatsApp chose to postpone the deadline until this 15 May and clarify “rumors and erroneous information” on the subject.
“We want to clarify that the update of the policy does not affect in any way the privacy of the messages that users share with their friends and family” , assured the firm.
“ Neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can read your messages or listen to the calls you make with your friends, family or colleagues on WhatsApp. Everything you share will remain between you ”, said the platform in its statement on Monday.
Cristian León, head of the innovation program of the civil organization Affairs of the South, based in Argentina, explained to BBC Mundo why the data of the users of the platform is so valuable.
- “WhatsApp is quite intrusive and Facebook is a data vulture”: Carissa Véliz, expert in privacy and information protection
“WhatsApp has a lot of metadata , which is the information obtained from any message we send, such as the brand of the phone, the time of the message, your location and others. With this, you can know a lot about your users, ”said León.
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