On May 15, restrictive measures began to be applied against some WhatsApp users. The messenger turns off calls and messages for those who did not agree to accept the new privacy policy.
WhatsApp warned about these restrictions on May 12. All users were obliged to allow the messenger to transfer their personal data to Facebook and all services belonging to it. Those who did not accept the new rules were threatened to gradually disable some of the application's functions.
First, dissenting users will be blocked from accessing chats and calls – they will only be able to reply to incoming messages. The next stage will take several weeks: owners of devices with WhatsApp installed will gradually lose notifications of incoming calls and messages.
At the same time, the company is not going to delete the accounts of such users. Those who downloaded WhatsApp will be able to “fix” within 120 days and still allow the application to transmit data to Facebook. After that, all options should be unlocked.
Previously, it was assumed that WhatsApp would introduce restrictive measures on February 8, but the management of the messenger postponed the update, faced with negative reactions and massive user churn.
New rules
In the WhatsApp update, announced in early January, users were presented with a fact: all their personal data that the messenger has access to will be transferred to Facebook to improve services, primarily advertising. The list of such data includes the user's phone number, and the list of his contacts, and geolocation, and a lot of other personal information. In addition, the social network will also have access to transactions through Facebook Pay or stores in WhatsApp.
Messenger users did not appreciate such attention to their data and began to run en masse to other messengers. In particular, after the announcement of a new privacy policy, the number of Telegram users in three days increased by 25 million. Against this background, the update was postponed, but since February Facebook has been pursuing a policy of soft pressure, regularly sending reminders to disable functionality in case of non-acceptance of the agreement.
Photo: Jeso Carneiro, Flickr, CC BY 2.0
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