(Reuters) – Facebook’s WhatsApp Inc. is delaying an update aimed at increasing business transactions on the platform after a storm of concern from users who feared the messaging platform was diluting its privacy policy in the process.
WhatsApp users received a notification this month that they were preparing a new privacy policy and conditions and reserved the right to share some user data with the Facebook app.
This sparked global shouts and a ramp of new users to competing private messaging apps, including Telegram and Signal.
On Friday, WhatsApp said it would delay the launch of the new policy in May from February, that the update focused on allowing users to send messages with companies, and that the update does not affect personal conversations, which will continue to be encrypted. from end to end.
“This update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook,” he said in a statement.
“While not everyone today buys a business on WhatsApp, we believe more people will choose to do so in the future and it is important that people know about these services,” he said.
Facebook has been implementing business tools on WhatsApp for the past year, as it moves to increase revenue from higher-growth units like WhatsApp and Instagram while linking e-commerce infrastructure across the enterprise.
Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $ 19 billion in 2014, but it has taken a while to make revenue.
The app already shares certain categories of personal data, including the user’s phone number and IP address, with Facebook.
“We do not keep records of who sends messages or calls to everyone. We also can’t see your shared location or share your Facebook contacts, “he said.
WhatsApp said in October that it would start offering in-app purchases through Facebook Shops and offer companies that use their customer messaging tools the ability to store those messages on Facebook servers. .
WhatsApp then said that chats with a company using the new hosting service would not be protected by end-to-end encryption of the app.
Reports of Katie Paul in San Francisco and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Additional reports by Elizabeth Culliford; Edited by Shounak Dasgupta and Cynthia Osterman