WhatsApp won’t limit functionality if you don’t accept its controversial privacy policy

In early May, WhatsApp had said that it will limit functionality for the users who didn’t accept its controversial privacy policy. According to TNW’s report, the Facebook-owned company has taken a step back in this regard and said that users who do not accept the privacy policy will not encounter limited functionality.

“Given recent discussions with various authorities and privacy experts, we want to make clear that we currently have no plans to limit the functionality of how WhatsApp works for those who have not yet accepted the update.” 

WhatsApp said it will continue to remind users to accept it. 

“Instead, we will continue to remind users from time to time about the update as well as when people choose to use relevant optional features, like communicating with a business that is receiving support from Facebook.”

First announced in January, the new privacy agreement that mandates data sharing with Facebook companies has faced a great reaction from both users and governments. Users who do not want to accept the new privacy policy have turned to alternatives such as Signal and Telegram, and this trend has led to a significant increase in the number of users of these two WhatsApp competitors.

A couple of weeks after the announcement of the new policy, Signal’s category ranking had increased by 750. 

In mid May, a couple of days before the enforcement of the new privacy policy, the Hamburg data protection agency had ordered Facebook to stop collecting German WhatsApp users’ data.

India also asked WhatsApp to withdraw its privacy policy by sending a notice that argues the new policy is a violation of law. In response, Whatsapp recently said that it continues to ” engage with the government and we reaffirm what we said before that this update does not impact the privacy of personal messages for anyone. ”

A couple of days ago, WhatsApp filed a lawsuit in the High Court of Delhi against Indian government challenging its second largest market’s internet regulations that would require the Facebook-owned company to provide access to encrypted messages. 

Turkey also forced WhatsApp to hold off its privacy policy.