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.

  • Dreeg Ocedam
    15•3 years 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.

    • @Rumblestiltskin
      3•3 years ago

      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.

    • Dreeg Ocedam
      3•3 years ago

      And they have done it already once with WhatsApp: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/technology/whatsapp-data.html

      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.

  • @[email protected]
    10•3 years ago

    Could you please try to avoid posting privacy-invading links about privacy-related issues? The only way I know to get around Engadget’s redirect tracking is to either block the site it redirects to, which effectively blocks Engadget entirely, or to auto-delete cookies, which makes the tracking temporary but also messes with other sites where cookies are actually needed.

  • Kohen Shaw
    10•3 years ago

    Giving user more time, as in waiting for a couple of weeks until this blows off and then doing it again, but incrementally over the span of two or three months. Just move away from whatsapp folks.

  • @[email protected]
    9•3 years ago

    This tactic is so common. Indian government said there was a lot of “misinformation” and “confusion” around the new farm laws without, as in this case, trying to clear said “misinformation” and “confusion”.