It has been over a month now since the controversy with WhatsApp has shaken the grounds of privacy when it comes to instant messaging and social media. WhatsApp has clearly given a deadline with a specific date i.e., May 15th 2021 for users to understand and accept its latest terms and conditions after which there has been no official statement about the deletion of the account or inability of users to access their default instant messaging application.
For those of you who are unaware of the controversy, I will give you a short brief about the same.
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook Inc. and in the past month, WhatsApp announced its latest privacy policy update with updated terms of service wherein it was mentioned that it is mandatory for all to agree to these terms in order to continue with the instant messaging service. There were also speculations that WhatsApp is integrating with its parent company i.e., Facebook Inc. and that it will share some user information with Facebook.
There was a huge backlash on social media from protestors, users and privacy activists about WhatsApp and Facebook’s dominance on the ‘take it or leave it’ attitude. WhatsApp is making it mandatory for Indian users to accept these terms and conditions and if they don’t, they will not be able to access their WhatsApp.
Having said that, will your WhatsApp accounts really get deleted if you do not comply with WhatsApp’s new privacy policy?
As mentioned in a report by Financial Express that on a FAQ page, WhatsApp has stated that user’s accounts will not get deleted. It is just that users who do not fall in compliance will not be able to have complete functionality of WhatsApp’s services and features. The FAQ page mentioned that users will be able to get calls and notifications from the instant messaging service, but they would not be able to read or send messages from or to anyone from WhatsApp anymore.
Furthermore, on the bright side, users who do not accept the company’s new terms of service will be able to export their chat history and account data and even download a report from WhatsApp. These users will be able to delete their accounts after which they will not be able to restore their previously stored data.
However, WhatsApp is hell-bound to make everyone understand this latest update and how this is important for user’s privacy. The company even got into trouble for alleged differential treatment stated by the government of India.
