WhatsApp Scraps May 15 Deadline For Accepting New Privacy Policy, Spokesperson Says 'No Accounts Will Be Deleted'

“No accounts will be deleted on May 15 because of this update and no one in India will lose functionality of WhatsApp either. We will follow up with reminders to people over the next several weeks,” PTI quoted a WhatsApp spokesperson as saying in an emailed response to a query.

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New Delhi: Facing criticism over users’ concerns that data was being shared with parent company Facebook, WhatsApp has scrapped its May 15 deadline for the users to accept its privacy policy update and said not accepting the terms will not lead to accounts deletion.

“No accounts will be deleted on May 15 because of this update and no one in India will lose functionality of WhatsApp either. We will follow up with reminders to people over the next several weeks,” PTI quoted a WhatsApp spokesperson as saying in an emailed response to a query.

He further said “majority of users who have received the new terms of service have accepted them”, adding some have not had the chance to do so yet.

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WhatsApp, however, did not clarify the reason behind the move.

Earlier in January, the company had through an in-app notification informed the users about changes in its terms of service and public policy.

The users were initially given time till February 8 to agree to the new terms in order to continue using the platform but the deadline was later postponed to May 15.

Stating the company has spent the last few months working to “clear up confusion and misinformation”, the spokesperson further said: “As a reminder, this update does not impact the privacy of personal messages for anyone. Our goal is to provide information about new options we are building that people will have, to message a business on WhatsApp, in the future.”