WhatsApp has extended the deadline to agree to the new terms
When the service was modified at the beginning of the month WhatsApp its conditions of sharing data with Facebook, it has provoked a wave of criticism among its users. According to the portal GSMarena has now decided to extend the deadline for agreeing to these conditions. The reason could also be the departure of many users to the competing open source service Signal.
The criticized conditions of data sharing do not apply to Slovak users
Changes in conditions affect up to three areas. One of the mentioned areas is the method of data processing by WhatsApp. Another way is for businesses to manage their WhatsApp messages with Facebook. The third says that WhatsApp will soon connect with Facebook to offer a deeper connection to the services. It was the last point that provoked a wave of reluctance. Users will need to accept the new terms of data sharing between services if they want to continue using the application.
If they agree to the change, then WhatsApp will share them with Facebook telephone number at registration, transaction details, or their IP address. 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. Originally, these conditions were to come into force on February 8. But yesterday the service on its own Twitter account announced the postponement of this date to 15 May.
What is the reason for postponing the deadline?
The first reason why the service has decided to take this step is certainly the huge amount of criticism of users on social networks regarding the new conditions of data sharing. Following the Cambridge Analytica case of the social network Facebook, users became more interested in how the Internet services they used treated their personal data and data. And it is Facebook that has owned WhatsApp for several years.
WhatsApp says in its statement that there have been misunderstandings, misinformation and that everything is not as black as it seems. It highlights its end-to-end encryption in the WhatsApp application and assures users that no one sees messages, the content of photos, and no one analyzes voices during calls.
The second reason is probably the increased interest of people in the competitive open source service Signal, which was the most downloaded application at the beginning of the week. She held her first position in the Google Play store in the US, the UK, Germany, Lebanon and France. Even in Slovakia, it reached the fourth place among the most downloaded applications at the beginning of the week.
Signal is also encrypted, but its encryption software is open source, which means that its code can be viewed by anyone. If the company also incorporated code into it, which is responsible for collecting various user data, it would be figured out. It also gives users the ability to look for software bugs and vulnerabilities, allowing the company to fix them quickly. It is therefore often rated as the safest among communication applications.
