Following the bad press and issues with privacy earlier this month, WhatsApp has now delayed the planned privacy update activation date from 8th February until 15th May 2021. The activation date is only delayed now, the Facebook and WhatsApp still intend on it coming into action soon.
WhatsApp has said the bad press and users jumping ship to alternatives such as Telegram, iMessage and the most popular, Signal was the result of some misinformation. The company is denying that it shares more information with Facebook following this privacy update and has said that there has been “a lot of misinformation” regarding the subject.
“With these updates, none of that is changing. Instead, the update includes new options people will have to message a business on WhatsApp, and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data. 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. This update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook.”
Here at A&T Tech we wrote a heated peace on why you should delete WhatsApp and Facebook from your life but WhatsApp is probably right, the only changes going to be made are regarding what it shares with businesses you message on Facebook, but unfortunately the messaging regarding the change was bad, the news fits the social narrative around Facebook and what it collects.
However since Facebook took over WhatsApp, the lines have been blurring too close for comfort since 2016, when data sharing started for ad targeting.
What do I do?
It is totally up to you, you can stick with WhatsApp and be tracked online or delete Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and use a much more private service such as Message, Telegram and Signal. Privacy is becoming a larger and larger issue and thanks to companies like Apple, those companies which abuse users privacy are now finally seeing the result of their actions.
