Privacy "WhatsApp cannot see your messages or listen to your calls": the app defends itself after the controversy over its terms and conditions
What's new WhatsApp changes its terms and conditions: this is what you must accept to continue using the app
The WhatsApp application announced this Friday that it will postpone a modification in its rules on information exchange due to the
flight of users towards rivals such
as Telegram or Signal.
"We are
postponing the date
that people will be asked to review and accept the new terms," Facebook-owned WhatsApp said in a blog post.
The company canceled the February 8 deadline for users to agree to the new rules, which include sharing their information with Facebook servers.
The change will be reviewed and was delayed
until May 15.
The new terms were
rejected by users outside of Europe
who did not accept that a deadline be imposed on them to cut their service.
The change is related to the way in which merchants who use WhatsApp to contact customers can share the data with Facebook, which can in turn use the information for
personalized advertisements
, according to the social network.
"We cannot see your private messages or listen to your calls, neither can Facebook," said WhatsApp in a previous post.
"We do not keep a record of the activity of users in messages or calls.
We cannot see their location
and neither can Facebook."
According to WhatsApp, the information about the location and the content of the messages is
encrypted from end to end.
"We are giving companies the option to use secure data storage services that Facebook has to manage conversations with their customers, answer questions and send useful information such as purchase receipts," WhatsApp explained.
Although he recognized that this can result in
advertising from Facebook.
As a consequence, rival app
Telegram has seen a marked increase in users
since WhatsApp's announcement, founder Pavel Durov said.
Durov, 36, of Russian origin, said on his Telegram channel this week that the app reached 500 million monthly active users in the first weeks of January and
"25 million new users in the last 72 hours."
People no longer want to exchange their privacy for free services, "said Durov without referring to his rival.
For its part, WhatsApp ensures that it has
more than 2,000 million users.
India
is the main WhatsApp market with 400 million users, but in recent weeks millions of people switched to Telegram or Signal.
Signal also confirmed a rapid increase in users, helped in part by a tweet from the world's richest man,
Elon Musk,
in which he recommended it.
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