Whatsapp puts off data sharing change after user backlash – Times of India

NEW DELHI: WhatsApp has delayed till May 15 the introduction of a new privacy policy announced earlier this month after confusion and user backlash forced the messaging service to better explain what data it collects and how it shares that information with parent company, Facebook Inc.
“We have heard from so many people how much confusion there’s around our recent update,” the company wrote Friday in a blog post. “There’s been a lot of misinformation causing concern and we want to help everyone understand our principles.” BLOOMBERG
‘Update won’t expand sharing data with FB’
WhatsApp had asked users to agree to the new policy by February 8, but has pushed that deadline to May 15 while it further explains the changes.
WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted and those messages are not stored on Facebook servers. But WhatsApp is also pushing aggressively into messaging for businesses. The updated privacy policy was intended to alert users that some businesses would soon be using Facebookowned servers to store messages with consumers. Facebook has said that it will not access those messages for any type of ad targeting, but language in the updated terms of service concerned users who worried that Facebook would suddenly see their private messages.
WhatsApp said that isn’t true, and that all private messages between friends and family members will remain endto-end encrypted. “While not everyone shops with a business on WhatsApp today, we think that more people will choose to do so in the future and it’s important people are aware of these services,” the company wrote. “This update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook.”