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.