WhatsApp says it will give users more time to agree to its controversial new privacy policy, citing mass “confusion” and “misinformation” about the update.
They seem to be backpedaling because seeing Signal and Telegram gaining so helluva many new users must have been scary.
This changes nothing. This happens so often when this kind of change is introduced. It generates a lot of backlash, then they postpone the change until people’s concerns have moved to something else, and reintroduce the exact same change.
Yes, when Facebook made major changes to WhatsApp privacy policies in 2016, there was a brief moment of choice. People could check a box to order Facebook not to use their data from WhatsApp for commercial purposes.
Facebook would still collect the data from WhatsApp users, as I explained above, but the company would not use the data to “improve its ads and product experiences,” like making friend recommendations.
But that option in WhatsApp existed for only 30 days in 2016. That was a lifetime ago in digital years, and approximately four million Facebook data scandals ago.
This changes nothing. This happens so often when this kind of change is introduced. It generates a lot of backlash, then they postpone the change until people’s concerns have moved to something else, and reintroduce the exact same change.
Overton window strategy
Exactly.
And later on they’ll likely use different words to convince people it is not the same change, but it will do the exact same thing.
And they have done it already once with WhatsApp: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/technology/whatsapp-data.html