WhatsApp forces users to accept new terms of service, privacy policy

WhatsApp on late Tuesday evening, January 5, started sending in-app notifications to its users in India and other countries, informing them about changes in its new terms of service and privacy policy.

The notification sent to both Android and iOS users is a requisite forcing them to agree to the messaging app's new privacy rules or else lose access to it, which will lead to their accounts getting deleted.

"WhatsApp is updating its terms and privacy policy," the company said in the notification.

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Key updates:

• The said communication also mentioned key updates which included more information about: -
• WhatsApp's service and how it processes user data
• How businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage their WhatsApp chats and,
• How the company partners with Facebook, its parent company, to offer integrations across the Facebook Company Product.

As per WhatsApp, its new terms of service, as well as privacy policy, will go live on February 8 and if the users want to continue using the app, they will have to accept the company's terms and conditions.

If they don't, they will no longer be able to access their WhatsApp accounts from February 8.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp started trending on Twitter soon after several users reported getting a notification about the app's changed policies.

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How WhatsApp will change

The Facebook-owned messaging app has also updated its privacy policies on its website and shared a comprehensive overview of how WhatsApp will change.

"Our Services have optional features which, if used by you, require us to collect additional information to provide such features. You will be notified of such a collection, as appropriate. If you choose not to provide the information needed to use a feature, you will be unable to use the feature. For example, you cannot share your location with your contacts if you do not permit us to collect your location data from your device. Permissions can be managed through your Settings menu on both Android and iOS devices," the messaging app wrote.

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WhatsApp further shared particulars on the extent of data collected automatically by the app.

"We collect information about your activity on our Services, like service-related, diagnostic, and performance information. This includes information about your activity (including how you use our Services, your Services settings, how you interact with others using our Services (including when you interact with a business), and the time, frequency, and duration of your activities and interactions), log files, and diagnostic, crash, website, and performance logs and reports," it stated.

"This also includes information about when you registered to use our Services; the features you use like our messaging, calling, Status, groups (including group name, group picture, group description), payments or business features; profile photo, "about" information; whether you are online, when you last used our Services (your "last seen"); and when you last updated your "about" information," WhatsApp added.

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