WhatsApp delays privacy policy update due to “confusion”

New York. WhatsApp messaging app decided on Friday to delay updating its privacy policy, scheduled for Feb. 8, to clear up “confusion” about the use of data with Facebook, the parent company , and its new options focused on selling products.

The update of the privacy policy has raised many doubts and misinformation about whether it meant access by Facebook to personal data, contacts or conversations that take place on WhatsApp, the most used messaging application of the world.

You can also read: Telegram and Signal gain popularity after WhatsApp fiasco

It also sparked doubts about whether to him not accepting the new terms of use, the user would lose his account and the app would disappear from his phone.

“We will delay the date people will be asked about the review and acceptance of the terms. No one is going to have their account suspended or deleted on February 8th. We will also do more to clarify misinformation about how privacy and security work on WhatsApp. “, The company said in a statement.

Facebook and its popular messaging affiliate have repeatedly tried to deny that with the new rules they will access the content of messages or calls, as well as contact lists or groups or shared geolocation.

In this Friday’s statement, WhatsApp said that “this update does not expand” its ability to “share data with Facebook” and promised to explain without haste the new usage policy “before business options are available on May 15.”

Several media outlets have reported that the new terms of privacy will include more open language, which has led to speculation that Facebook will access WhatsApp data, while the company has insisted that everything responds to greater prominence and functionality to communicate. se with business and make purchases.

“Although people do not use WhatsApp to buy into business today, we believe that more people will choose to do so in the future and it is important that the world is aware of these services.”, The statement said.

The messaging app, with about 2 billion users, fears a mass exodus to Telegram and Signal, which have positioned themselves as the most jealous when it comes to avoiding the collection and use of metadata by their users, despite that WhatsApp also encrypts conversations.

Many groups have used the confusion about WhatsApp to spread misinformation about the use of private data by Facebook, which has also been widely criticized in the United States by groups of all kinds, first, for not controlling the language of groups white supremacists and subsequently to deny them access.