News
WhatsApp Explains What Will Happen When Users Don’t Accept Its Privacy Changes
WhatsApp’s updated Privacy Policy has been causing a lot of anger and confusion among the Facebook-owned instant messaging and voice-over-IP service since it has been released on January 4. Now, WhatsApp has finally explained what will happen to users who don’t accept it.
The new Privacy Policy states, among other things, that WhatsApp receives information from other Facebook companies and provides information to other Facebook companies.
“We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings, including the Facebook Company Products.”
TechCrunch was the first to reveal that WhatsApp plans to give users some time to review the changes before forcing them to make a decision whether to accept it or not. A newly created FAQ page makes it clear that users have until May 15 to accept the Privacy Policy updates.
Those who fail to meet the deadline won’t lose their WhatsApp account, but they won’t be able to use it to its full extend either. Instead, they will only be able to receive calls and notifications — not actually read or send messages from the app.
The accounts of users who don’t accept after May 15 will be considered to be inactive, which automatically triggers a 120-day countdown to account deletion. Once deleted, WhatsApp accounts can’t be restored.
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If you don’t want to accept the new Privacy Policy and allow WhatsApp to share your personal information with other Facebook companies, your best bet is to use an alternative instant messaging and voice-over-IP service.
For example, Telegram makes it possible for users to easily migrate their chat history from WhatsApp, and it has a far more user-respecting Privacy Policy to boot. Other WhatsApp alternatives worth considering include Signal, Viber, Discord, and Threema, just to name a few.
News
Truecaller For iPhone Gets Real-Time Caller ID And Auto Spam Blocking
The latest update integrates with Apple’s Live Caller ID Lookup framework, launched with iOS 18 last year.
Truecaller has rolled out a major update for iPhone users, introducing API support that brings real-time caller identification and automatic spam blocking. The upgrade aims to bring the iOS version of the app closer to its Android counterpart, which has long offered these advanced call-screening features.
The latest update integrates with Apple’s Live Caller ID Lookup framework, launched with iOS 18 last year. The technology allows third-party apps to cross-check incoming calls against a database of known spam numbers in real-time. Importantly, the process employs “homomorphic encryption,” ensuring user privacy by masking the caller’s number, concealing the client’s IP address, and using anonymous authentication.
With this update, Truecaller has also introduced global automatic spam call blocking for iPhones. However, the real-time caller ID feature is being released gradually and is available only to Truecaller Premium subscribers on iPhones running iOS 18.2 or later. Free users will still have access to ad-supported features, such as manual number searches and caller identification for verified businesses.
How To Enable The New Features
To activate the new features, follow these steps:
- Update the Truecaller app to version 14.0 or newer via the App Store.
- Go to Settings > Apps > Phone > Call Blocking & Identification on your iPhone.
- Turn on all Truecaller toggles, then restart the app.
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While these features are new to iOS, Truecaller has hinted at this update for months. Following Apple’s iOS 18 update and the introduction of its Live Caller ID API last September, Truecaller Co-founder Alan Mamedi shared his excitement on X (formerly Twitter), saying, “Truecaller finally works on iPhone”.
The global rollout of spam call blocking is already live, but users may need to wait for gradual access to the live caller ID feature.
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