WhatsApp didn't start the year on a very good note as it almost instantly entangled itself in a controversy when it rolled out a new privacy policy. While the company had to push back the initial deadline to May 15, a new report suggests WhatsApp is scrapping the deadline altogether, but not without severe consequences for those who don't agree to the new policy.
WhatsApp scraps May 15 deadline for accepting privacy policy, says no accounts will be deleted if terms not accepted by users
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) May 7, 2021
And in a statement given to Android Central, WhatsApp has confirmed that while it won't terminate accounts immediately, users who don't accept the new terms will have only "limited account functionality" available to them until they do. In the short term, that means losing access to your chat list, but you will still be able to see and respond to notifications as well as answer voice and video calls. However, after a few weeks of that, WhatsApp will then switch off all incoming notifications and calls for your account, effectively rendering it useless.
The decision not to fully enforce the deadline seems to be in reaction to the stern stance that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) in India took against the company. Earlier this year, the ministry filed a counter-affidavit in the high court to prevent WhatsApp from going ahead with the privacy policy update.
