WhatsApp postpones limitation of app functions if conditions are not accepted
WhatsApp will not immediately start limiting functions for users who have not yet accepted the new terms and conditions by May 15. That only comes ‘after a period of several weeks’. WhatsApp has adjusted the deadline and consequences regarding the new conditions several times.
During that period of several weeks, starting on May 15, users will regularly receive a reminder of the new terms and conditions, asking whether they want to read and accept them. Over time, that memory becomes “persistent,” as WhatsApp calls it now. It will vary by user when that transition takes place.
The persistent memory means a limitation of the functionality, as the Facebook subsidiary discussed earlier. Then no new messages can be read or sent, but you can still receive and respond to notifications and place and answer calls. You can accept the conditions at any time.
After another ‘several weeks’ of limited functionality, WhatsApp is being scaled back much further. Then users will no longer receive notifications, messages and calls. “Also, keep in mind that the separate inactive user policy will then apply,” they continue. It’s not explained on that page, but that policy states that accounts are “generally” deleted after 120 days of inactivity. This is ‘to maintain security, limit data retention and protect the privacy of our users’.
In early January, WhatsApp announced that users had to agree to the new privacy terms. It focused on how WhatsApp shares data with Facebook. The terms and conditions cover, among other things, how WhatsApp stores and uses transaction data for payment services, such as Facebook Pay in WhatsApp. And how data shared in conversations with companies on WhatsApp can end up with Facebook, if companies use a link between WhatsApp for Business with other Facebook services.
Within the EU, however, Facebook is not allowed to use data from European WhatsApp users, so that virtually nothing changes to the terms of use for European users.