WhatsApp once again justifies its scandalous privacy settings, but is not even going to amend them.
The WhatsApp blog has a new message about the scandalous changes to the privacy policy. The company said that users must accept the controversial update, or they will have to stop using the app.
Recall that earlier WhatsApp tried to implement a privacy policy that allows the transfer of personal data of subscribers to Facebook. Information about the user’s activity on various social networks, his registration data, information about location and transactions may be exposed. The innovation was immediately criticized by subscribers and WhatsApp postponed the introduction of the innovation from February to May 2021. Interestingly, even Elon Musk drew attention to this situation. He advised his subscribers to consider alternative services for online communication.
WhatsApp said that users misunderstood the news of the upcoming update. The information was allegedly distorted. One of the reasons why this happened is the description of innovations in ambiguous language. The company is working to improve the information content and ease of perception of internal news. For example, WhatsApp now uses the status feature in its app to share important information with users.
Interestingly, new messages from WhatsApp are written in the same contradictory language. The company admits it is to blame for the update mess, but is not making a change to the controversial privacy policy. For example, the platform previously claimed that it couldn’t see the general location of its users, just like Facebook. But the app’s privacy policy still states that it collects and uses accurate geodata from subscribers. This happens with the knowledge of the users themselves when they allow the application to use the functionality associated with their location. Even if the subscriber only sends messages and does not enable other functions of the application, it still analyzes the device’s IP address and phone number codes to evaluate geodata.
This is just one example of WhatsApp’s conflicting wording over the new privacy terms. But WhatsApp continues to assure that mutual understanding between the company and users will be restored. To do this, in the coming days, a kind of banner will appear in the application, which will provide more information about upcoming updates.
WhatsApp also reached out to users who have already started switching to other communication platforms such as Telegram and Signal. The company said it was sympathetic and noted that some of its competing apps could read messages from their users. WhatsApp will work to make the app as reliable as possible, even if it needs a little personal data from its subscribers to do so.
