- WhatsApp will start asking users to agree to a new privacy policy.
- The messaging app prompted users earlier in January, but accidentally started a privacy panic.
- The panic intensified the user numbers of competing encrypted messaging services Signal and Telegram.
- Visit the Insider Business Department for more stories.
WhatsApp is trying to get widespread panic back home users a month after a change in privacy policy.
In January, the company sent a notice to users asking them to agree to an updated privacy policy or to lose access to the program.
In fact, the privacy policy only significantly affects the way the platform handles the data sent from messages sent to business accounts. However, many users believe that this means that more of their data will be shared with WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook.
WhatsApp has pushed back the deadline for agreeing to the new terms and conditions. On Thursday, it posted a blog post saying it would ask users to sign off on the new policy again.
However, instead of sending WhatsApp a pop-up notification this time, WhatsApp displays a banner at the top of the app that users can click to review the new policy. By clicking on the banner, they are taken to a fuller explanation of exactly what is changing.
This is the explanation that users will see when they click through.
WhatsApp
In his blog post, it appears that WhatsApp wants to take a look at competing apps, which gained user numbers after last month’s privacy scare.
“During this time, we realized that people might be looking at other apps to see what they’re offering. We’ve seen some of our competitors try to get away with claiming they can not see people’s messages – as an app it does not provide end-to-end encryption by default, which means they can read your messages, “it says.
WhatsApp does not mention which competitors it is referring to, but two of the biggest apps benefiting from the privacy concerns of January were the messaging apps Signal and Telegram. Signal downloads rose 4,200% in the four days after the WhatsApp announcement, with 7.5 million new downloads. Telegram said it gained 25 million new users within 72 hours and took it past the 500 million download point.
Although Signal is encrypted end-to-end by default, Telegram is not.
WhatsApp apparently made a veiled reference to these services in its blog, saying: ‘Other apps say it’s better because they know even less information than WhatsApp. We believe that people are looking for apps to be reliable and secure, even if it requires WhatsApp to have limited data. “
Signal and Telegram collect less metadata about users than WhatsApp does, which experts say provides better services for people who want to protect their privacy.