At the start of this year, WhatsApp brought an updated privacy policy and received huge criticism from Indian users. In the latest privacy policy, the online instant messaging platform claims that the user's details will be shared with the parent company Facebook. This news created a huge buzz on the internet, and Indian users got very angry about the new policies. As a result, the majority of users started switching to Signal and Telegram. Considering all this, WhatsApp decided to push the deadline until May 15, 2021. During this period, WhatsApp promised to educate people about the policies.
WhatsApp Gives Up on May 15 Deadline
However, in the last couple of months, the company didn’t educate anyone rather than putting a banner on the app to accept the new policies. We are around the corners of the May 15th deadline, and now the company has confirmed that the deadline is scrapped, and the user's accounts will not be deleted if they don’t agree with the new policies.
A report from PTI confirmed the news on its official Twitter handle, stating that WhatsApp has scrapped the May 15 deadline for users to accept the privacy policies update by the company. The tweet also confirmed that the accounts would not be suspended if the users refuse to accept the policies. The company has confirmed that a majority of users have already accepted the privacy policy, and only some people are yet to accept it.
The company didn’t disclose the reason behind the decision and also refused to disclose the number of users who have accepted the privacy policy. Back in January, when WhatsApp introduced the update to the Indian users, it received backlash on social media and also on news headlines.
It seems that the company understands that the removal of the deadline is a good deal; otherwise, it might lose the Indian subscriber base and face difficulty. In India, WhatsApp has a total user base of 390.1 million, and it's a huge number. Even countries like the United States and Brazil are behind India with 75.1 million and 108 million, respectively. Do share your thoughts in the comment section about the WhatsApp policies.
