WhatsApp began the year surrounded by controversy after announcing its new privacy policies, something that did not please many users who ended up going in disbandment to other applications. We could now be facing the last chapter of the drama, as WaBetaInfo ensures that WhatsApp’s new privacy policy will be optional.
Initially, it was going to be necessary to accept WhatsApp’s new terms of use to continue chatting, although instead Facebook announced that functions would be progressively limited, and then backtracked. Now, it appears that it will only be necessary to accept this privacy policy to connect with certain business profiles on WhatsApp.
Accept the conditions of WhatsApp only if you need them
WhatsApp’s attempts to explain the changes in its privacy policy did not have much effect, so the whole thing has been on hold since the end of May when the company announced that for the time being no limitations would apply to those who had not accepted the terms of use. Three months later, we have a new episode of this novel.
WaBetaInfo has discovered a warning that appears when you try to chat with a company account if you have not accepted the terms of use. If you don’t accept the terms you can’t chat with the company. The reason is that this company uses a Facebook service to manage chats, and the company needs you to accept the use of your data in that service in the new privacy policy.
The takeaway from this notice is that to keep talking to your friends and acquaintances, you shouldn’t need to agree to the privacy policy. Instead, the app would ask you to accept the conditions only when you are going to perform an action that needs it, such as chatting with a business account.
According to WaBetaInfo, WhatsApp plans to announce these changes to the terms of use soon, which would materialize in a future update of the app for iPhone and Android mobiles. Will this be the end of the WhatsApp terms of use crisis?
