WhatsApp Seems to Have Extended Deadline for Accepting Updated Privacy Policy

WhatsApp seems to have extended its privacy policy acceptance date in select regions till June 19, 2021. The Facebook-owned messaging service had given May 15 as the deadline for accepting the updated privacy policy but did not take any action for people who did not accept the terms. Although WhatsApp had said it will not disable accounts that do not accept the new policy, it appears that at least in some regions, it has simply set a new deadline. A report states that there is a new date for accepting the policy which, like the previous deadline, states the terms will need to be accepted to continue using WhatsApp.

According to a report by WhatsApp update tracker WABetaInfo, users in some countries including Germany and Argentina have got a new deadline for accepting the update terms of service – June 19, 2021. The pop-up message that shows the date states that the updated terms comply with new European Union data protection laws and users will need to accept the terms by June 19 to continue using WhatsApp. Users can still ignore the pop-up but will have to accept the terms to be able to use WhatsApp with full functionality after the date.

Originally, the messaging service asked users to accept the new terms by February 8 but after a lot of criticism it postponed the date to May 15. Last week, we reached out to WhatsApp to understand what would happen with users who did not accept the policy to which it responded, “While the majority of users who have received the new terms of service have accepted them, we appreciate some people haven't had the chance to do so yet. No accounts were deleted on May 15 because of this update and no one in India lost functionality of WhatsApp either.”

WhatsApp added that it will follow up with reminders to those people over the next several weeks. The service continues to maintain its stand regarding the new terms promising that chats and calls will remain safe, secured, and end-to-end encrypted. It also said that contacts will not be shared with Facebook, and that this new policy is directed towards businesses on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp was also directed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to withdraw its new privacy policy, as per a letter sent by the agency to the instant messaging platform accessed by NDTV.

Gadgets 360 sat down with Mishi Choudhary, Technology Lawyer and Founder of SFLC, New York to understand everything in detail and you can check out the video below.