How Will WhatsApp’s New Privacy Policy Affect Me?
Ignoring WhatsApp’s policy reminders may soon limit your app functionality
As we approach the May 15 deadline, WhatsApp has shared the forward course of action on its new privacy policy and terms. The users in India who have not yet accepted these policy terms will be sent new reminders over the next several weeks.
After a period of time, these reminders will become persistent and limit functionality on Whatsapp until the user accepts the update. According to the company’s official blog, this limited functionality will then be slowly escalated to make an account inactive.
First, users will only lose access to their chat list and would be able to answer incoming calls and respond to messages from notifications. Then after a few weeks, WhatsApp will stop sending messages and calls to the user’s phone. While this does not “technically” deletes a user account, it does make it inactive.
Given the company’s existing policy on deleting inactive WhatsApp accounts after 120 days, an account with persistent notification will be deleted after crossing that period.
WhatsApp’s privacy policy terms have been challenged in the High Court by Dr Seema Singh, Meghan and Vikram Singh. Their public interest litigation (PIL) sought that WhatsApp should either be directed to roll back the new policy or offer an opt out option to Indian users.
In response to the PIL, WhatsApp has reportedly said that other apps in India also have similar terms of service. Some of the mentioned companies include Microsoft, Zomato, Google, Zoom, Big Basket, Truecaller Koo, and Republic World. It also highlighted that public entities like Aarogya Setu, IRCTC, BHIM too have similar policies.
Responding to the PIL, Indian government claimed that WhatsApp’s new policy update violates Information Technology Rules of 2011 and that WhatsApp should restrain the policy application until the court comes up with a decision on the matter. The next court hearing on the PIL is scheduled for May 17, 2021.
WhatsApp New Privacy Policy
WhatsApp’s new privacy policy was first announced in January 2021 and has since been questioned for its impact on user privacy. The social messaging company claims that its new privacy policies are only related to certain WhatsApp business features and will not affect personal messages.
WhatsApp has reiterated that the personal messages and calls will continue to be encrypted and that the company will not be reading or listening to them. However, the messages and calls sent to business accounts will not be encrypted. So any communication that we do with a WhatsApp Business account will be shared with the company and could be used for ads targeting on other Facebook-owned platforms. Similarly, if you interact with WhatsApp shops, the data on those interactions might be shared with Facebook.
“The updates related to optional business features are a part of our broader efforts to make communicating with a business secure, better, and easier for everyone,” said an earlier company statement.
