With his controversial privacy policy Scheduled to go into effect this weekend, WhatsApp says it won’t delete or deactivate the accounts of people who don’t want to share their information with Facebook. “No one will see their accounts deleted or lose WhatsApp functionality on May 15 because of this update,” the company said in a support article spotted by Bleeping computer. Instead, WhatsApp plans to gradually limit the features that users can access until they agree to the new privacy policy.
If this applies to you, you will have the option of continuing to use WhatsApp as usual for “several weeks”. Eventually, however, WhatsApp will start sending you persistent notifications to accept its updated privacy policy. “At that point, you will encounter limited functionality on WhatsApp until you accept the updates,” the company says.
At first, you will lose access to your mailing list. The only way the app will let you message or call someone is if it contacts you first and you tap on the WhatsApp notification. After several more weeks, the app will completely stop sending messages and calls to your phone. The exact time the process begins for individual holdouts will be different for everyone.
Once you get to step two, your options are limited if you don’t agree to the policy at this point. You can export your chat history or download a report from your account. You can also delete it, although WhatsApp warns that this is something it cannot reverse. In the end, it might not matter much. As part of a separate policy, WhatsApp automatically deletes accounts after 120 days of inactivity.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through any of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
