On Wednesday, this update was sent to users with a short deadline that users have to accept the update and allow Facebook and its partners to obtain user’s data. Now everything will be shared with Facebook including the user’s contact number, contact’s phone number, locations, chats, and more. WhatsApp has also given a deadline of 8th February, if users will not accept the update their accounts will be taken away from them.
This saddening update is propelling people to uninstall their WhatsApp account and consider other smaller communication platforms like Signal and Telegram for secure communications.
According to Mike Butcher, the TechCrunch editor tweeted that if users are worried about the privacy of their data then, Signal and Telegram are good options to go for. He also compared WhatsApp and Telegram in terms of data these platforms collect.
On the other side, Elon Musk who is he CEO of Tesla is also included in those people who are suggesting to users to try shifting the services. Musk also has posted a sarcastic meme and claimed that Facebook is responsible for the protestor’s attack in the US capitol which happened on Wednesday.
Facebook owned WhatsApp in 2014, since then, it has given users a one-time option to step back from sharing data with Facebook.
In a conversation with Ars Technica, a WhatsApp spokesperson said that through this modification, WhatsApp chats will be saved by utilizing the advanced resources of Facebook. Companies will be enabled to have access to WhatsApp chats.
The purpose of this update is still not clear. However, for users living in the EU or UK, this update is not for them. The spokesperson stated that the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy will not affect users in the UK and EU. To clear out the confusion, WhatsApp in the European region won’t give any access of user’s data to Facebook, and Facebook is not allowed to use any of the data for advertisements.
Photo: Thomas Trutschel via Getty Images
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