WhatsApp delays updated online privacy policy after confusion and customer backlash

WhatsApp has delayed the launch of a new online privacy policy announced earlier this month after dilemma and individual backlash forced the messaging provider to better clarify what info it collects and how it shares that facts with parent provider, Facebook.

“We’ve heard from as a result many people how much dilemma there is just about our latest update,” the business wrote in a weblog post. “There’s been a whole lot of misinformation creating concern and we want to help everyone understand our ideas and the facts.”

WhatsApp had asked users to agree to the new insurance policy by February 8, but has pushed that deadline to May 15 while it further explains the improvements.

WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, meaning only a message’s sender and recipient can read it, and the ones messages are not kept on Facebook servers. But WhatsApp is also pressing aggressively into messaging for businesses. The updated privacy policy was designed to alert users that some businesses would in the near future be using Facebook-possessed servers to store messages with consumers.

Facebook features said that you won't access those text messages for any kind of ad targeting, but language in the updated conditions of assistance concerned many users who all worried that Facebook would suddenly see their private messages.

WhatsApp said that is not true, and that private messages between friends and family members will stay end-to-end encrypted.

“Without everyone shops with a organization on WhatsApp today, we think that more people might decide to do so later on and it’s important persons know about these services,” the business wrote. “This update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook.”

The miscommunication has highlighted Facebook’s challenge in convincing users that the business takes their privacy seriously. A lot of the words in the brand new updated policy is comparable to rules rolled out in 2016, but Facebook has handled multiple privacy issues since then, including a $5 billion settlement with the Federal government Trade Commission. Facebook chief executive Tag Zuckerberg has made individual messaging a top priority moving forward, but that has as well meant bringing WhatsApp further under Facebook’s control, both operationally and from a brand and marketing perspective.

The miscommunication around WhatsApp’s new policies has helped result in a spike in user growth for competing apps, such as Signal and Telegram.

Meanwhile, Signal experienced technical difficulties on Friday as it attempted to match demand that exceeded its “most optimistic projections”.

“Millions upon millions of new users are actually sending a note that privacy things. We appreciate your persistence,” the business tweeted.