a saga that has been rumbling on since January. What was intended as an innocent update to improve functionality was not clearly communicated and was interpreted by s as being a huge shift towards data sharing with parent company Facebook.
In reality, the only update about data sharing with Facebook was in relation to s dealing with businesses. It will allow deeper and more convenient integration between the two platforms for messaging between s and businesses and mean that some data will be stored on Facebook's servers. Businesses will also be able to use data in messages between them and WhatsApp s for commercial purposes. What won't happen is any lessening of WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption, meaning chats between s and their s will remain entirely private. With that having been ironed out, WhatsApp had said that s would have until May 15 to accept the new instead of the original February 8 date. Then, it would begin reminding s to accept the new before beginning to limit functionality in the app, and ultimately removing access to it.
Now, though, The Next Web reports that no such action will be taken and s will simply continue to be reminded to accept the . Facebook is reported to have said: "We will continue to remind s from time to time about the update as well as when people choose to use relevant optional features, like communicating with a business that is receiving from Facebook." The about-turn is apparently as a result of discussions with various authorities and privacy experts.
How Has The Update Affected WhatsApp?
Most WhatsApp s won't even be aware this hand-wringing has been going on. Many will have accepted the update immediately and thought nothing else of it. Others who have not accepted the updated will simply have dismissed any messages and carried on as usual. Until there is a problem with functionality, these s may see no reason to accept the new .
For WhatsApp, however, the whole debacle has been rather more of a headache. Although it is reported not to have seen any significant fall in s numbers, alternative messaging services like Telegram and Signal have seen big influxes of new s, perhaps indicating the stirrings of some stiffer competition. What's more WhatsApp has had to painstakingly explain its actual position, firefight brand damage, and defer to s in delaying deadlines and waiving the threat of limiting functionality. Whether rightly or wrongly, WhatsApp will be all too aware that clearer messaging at the start could have avoided this whole storm in a teacup.
Source: The Next Web