WhatsApp delays data sharing change after backlash

WhatsApp delays data WhatsApp has waived its February 8, 2021 deadline to accept changes to its terms of service

WhatsApp on Friday postponed a data-sharing change as users concerned about privacy fled the Facebook-owned messaging service and flocked to rivals Telegram and Signal.

The smartphone app, a huge hit around the world. Has waived its February 8 deadline to agree to an update to its terms regarding data sharing with Facebook. Saying it would use the pause to clear up misinformation about privacy and security.

“We’ve heard from many people about how much confusion there is around our recent update,” WhatsApp said in a blog post.

“This update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook.”

He said he would “gradually move to people to review the policy at their own pace before new commercial options become available on May 15.”

WhatsApp’s new terms were unpopular among users outside Ghana WhatsApp Number List Europe who resent being given a deadline to be cut off from the service.

The update affects how merchants using WhatsApp to chat with customers may share data with Facebook. Which could use the information for targeted advertising. According to the social network.

 

“We don’t keep logs of who everyone is messaging or calling

We can’t see your shared location and neither can Facebook.” Location data as well as message content are end-to-end encrypted, according to WhatsApp.

“We’re offering businesses the ability to use Facebook’s secure hosting services to manage WhatsApp chats with their customers, answer questions, and send useful information like purchase receipts,” WhatsApp said in a post.

“Whether you communicate with a company by phone. Email or WhatsApp. They can see what you say and may use that information for their own marketing purposes, which may include advertising on Facebook.”

Encrypted messaging app Telegram has seen its user ranks surge following the announcement of WhatsApp’s terms of service, its Russian-born founder Pavel Durov said.

Durov, 36, said on his Telegram channel this week that the WhatsApp Number Database app had more than 500 million monthly active users in the first weeks of January and “25 million new users joined Telegram in the last 72 hours alone.”

WhatsApp has over two billion users

“People no longer want to trade their privacy for free services,” Durov said, without directly referring to the rival app.

Encrypted messaging app Signal also saw a surge in demand. Helped by a tweeted recommendation from billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.

In India, WhatsApp’s largest market with some 400 million users, both apps gained about four million subscribers last week, financial daily Mint reported, citing data from research firm Sensor Tower.

WhatsApp sought to reassure worried users in the Bulk Database South Asian country, running full-page ads in newspapers on Wednesday proclaiming that “respecting your privacy is in our DNA.”

Telegram is a social media platform popular in a number of countries. Particularly the former Soviet Union and Iran, and is used both for private communications and sharing information and news.

Durov said Telegram has become

A safe haven” for those seeking a private and secure communications platform and assured new users that his team “takes this responsibility very seriously.”

Telegram was founded in 2013 by brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov. Who also founded the Russian social media network VKontakte.

Telegram’s refusal to cooperate with authorities’ demands to hand. Over encryption keys has led to its ban in several countries, including Russia.

Last year, Russia announced it would lift its ban. On the app after more than two years of unsuccessful attempts to block it.