After user conflict: WhatsApp replaces data protection

If you want to continue using WhatsApp, you should agree to the new data protection rules by the beginning of February. This was the request. Now this deadline has been postponed until mid-May. Users had complained and many people fled.

Messenger service WhatsApp is postponing the announcement of its new data protection rules for three months. As per current planning, all users should accept the new terms by February 8 if they wish to continue using the Facebook-related chat service. The new deadline is now May 15. Apparently, violent user protests and a strong migration to competitors such as Telegram or Signal led to the WhatsApp decision.

Incorrect information was spread about the new data protection rules, which they intend to complete by mid-May. According to WhatsApp, the changes are primarily about creating better ways to communicate with companies. End-to-end encryption, with which chat content is visible only to participating users, will not be shaken. It is also not about data forwarded on Facebook.

Competition is growing strongly

Outside the EU, WhatsApp user data has been flowing to Facebook since 2016 – among other things for advertising purposes. Other guidelines for the European Union and Great Britain apply without data transfer. With over two billion users, WhatsApp is the most used messenger service in the world.

But competition is increasing – perhaps not just because of planned data security changes. Stringent action on extremists and conspiracy myths may also have contributed to emigration. Telegram’s boss Pavel Duoro said on his platform on Wednesday that Telegram surpassed 500 million smart mobile users in the first week of January. “After that, we continued to grow: in the last 72 hours alone, Telegram added 25 million new users. These new users came from all over the world.” This is a significant increase compared to last year, when 1.5 million new users were registered every day. Swiss messenger provider Threma announced that daily download numbers had “multiplied” since last week.