What happens if you do not agree to the new terms?

The new terms of use for WhatsApp, which come into force in May, are arousing passions even two months after their announcement. Portal TechCrunch has now come up with information waiting for users who disagree.

Users will not agree to the new terms without reading

The security of communication services and social networks has become one of the things users pay attention to after the Cambridge Analytica case. Gone are the days when they didn’t pay attention to the terms of service and automatically agreed to them. This also applies to the new conditions of WhatsApp, which immediately provoked a wave of criticism.

They relate, for example, to how WhatsApp data is processed or how businesses manage their WhatsApp messages with Facebook. The main criticism was that WhatsApp will soon contact Facebook to offer a deeper connection to the services. If users agree to the change of conditions, then WhatsApp will share them with Facebook, for example telephone number at registration, transaction details or their IP address and similar.

It should be noted that these conditions only apply to countries where GDPR rules do not apply, so they do not apply to Slovak users. Pthese conditions were originally to take effect on 8 February. Due to negative reactions, the service announced the postponement of this date to May 15. What happens if users do not agree to the terms?

This awaits you if you do not agree to the new terms

If, as a WhatsApp user, you decide not to agree to the new terms, the service will be partially inoperable for you. In practice, this means that you will be able to receive calls and notifications, but you will not be able to send or receive text messages. Text messaging is the primary and original function of WhatsApp.

And if the average user does not have the ability to send messages via WhatsApp, sooner or later it will become inactive. Depending on the terms of service, inactive accounts will then be deleted after 120 days. Therefore, every user today should consider whether to agree to new conditions or prefer to move to the competition. The competing services Signal and Telegram have been benefiting from the whole case for several weeks now.