agreeing to our new privacy policy is not mandatory’

At the beginning of this year, users were groomed by WhatsApp’s new privacy policy. Facebook’s action was met with suspicion from various quarters: it obliged users to agree to hand over more data to Facebook. Later, the obligation was partly removed, and this time the news follows that people do not have to accept the privacy conditions. They are now ‘optional’.

WhatsApp Privacy Policy

More and more Facebook services are being linked together. Users can now chat with their friends on Facebook via Instagram. Via WhatsApp it is possible to chat with companies on Facebook. To make this possible, WhatsApp’s privacy policy had to be adjusted at the beginning of this year: permission must be given to Facebook for sending WhatsApp messages to the Facebook servers.

This new policy was met with suspicion; many users even switched to competitors such as Signal or Telegram after the policy was announced.

Facebook responded by temporarily postponing the implementation of its privacy policy. Not much later, it said it would “not delete accounts” of consumers who did not agree with its policy. Under pressure from governments, the company repented in May. In an update, WhatsApp announced that it would not limit WhatsApp functionalities to those who did not agree; reminders would only be sent for agreeing to the terms. After that update, it remained silent from the Facebook daughter, until Saturday. WaBetaInfo has new information in its hands.

According to the website, WhatsApp will soon roll out an update to its Android and iOS apps to make the terms optional. For chatting with friends or family it is no longer necessary to accept the conditions; it won’t remind you anymore. If you start the conversation with a special business account that is managed via Facebook, you will run into limitations, WaBetaInfo says. WhatsApp will then ask you to agree with a pop-up. If you do not agree, you cannot send messages to business accounts.

Optional conditions

For those who were suspicious of the new policy and the associated obligation, the book is closed. Users who have already agreed to the terms and conditions will retain all functionalities after the update. So they do not have to agree again. If you have already agreed, then you are committed to it. Although these terms and conditions are now optional, it is not possible to revoke a given consent.

What do you think of the adjustment WhatsApp has made to its privacy conditions? Are you going to return to the Facebook daughter now that you don’t have to agree anymore? Let us know in the comments at the bottom of the article.