In January, WhatsApp communicated the new conditions of the application to its users through a notification. A decision that had caused controversy. Facebook, owner of WhatsApp, found itself at the center of a scandal over the new terms of service. The Facebook-owned app has been trying for months to get users to agree to the new policy.
Under pressure from its users, WhatsApp initially delayed the date to accept its new terms of use. But this deadline ends next week. To continue using the application, therefore, you must accept the conditions.
Conditions must be accepted before May 15
This does not change anything regarding the security of conversations that are end-to-end encrypted by default. With this encryption, neither Facebook nor WhatsApp can access the conversations, even after the changes. And yet some of the users are reluctant and do not want to accept the new conditions.
WhatsApp keeps showing an alert if you have not yet accepted the new terms of service. It comes in the form of a two-screen notification that is displayed when you open WhatsApp. And the message ends by saying that after May 15, 2021, access to WhatsApp will be lost if the new conditions of service are not accepted.
It unleashed panic on social media. Many users have decided to use competing applications such as Telegram or Signal. It would be more than a million to have taken the step.
And yet the new data exchange with Facebook should be understood primarily as a new device that simply implies that conversations with companies or brands on WhatsApp are likely to go through Facebook’s servers. The company stressed that the update will not affect personal conversations. “This update does not increase our ability to share data with Facebook,” WhatsApp said in a statement last month.
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