WhatsApp starts Privacy Update education program (screenshots)

We reported yesterday that WhatsApp was halting the roll-out of their privacy update and pushing back the deadline when users will need to agree to share their data with Facebook.

The company had miscalculated the reception their message would receive, but are still committed to not making any changes to their plans.

Instead, the company hopes to educate users into understanding the actual implications of the new policies, which the Facebook claims are innocuous.

They are pushing out a story to WhatsApp users with the following message:

The message echos an earlier infographic the company has been promoting with the same statements.

The story is likely only the first of WhatsApp’s efforts to reassure their billion users that there is no need to jump ship to another platform such as Signal.

The company will now give users until the 15th May to decide if they agree to the (unchanged) new terms of service, which WhatsApp says are motivated by their plans to turn WhatsApp into a commercial platform similar to WeChat.

Read their earlier statement below:

Giving More Time For Our Recent Update
We’ve heard from so many people how much confusion there is around our recent update. There’s been a lot of misinformation causing concern and we want to help everyone understand our principles and the facts.

WhatsApp was built on a simple idea: what you share with your friends and family stays between you. This means we will always protect your personal conversations with end-to-end encryption, so that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can see these private messages. It’s why we don’t keep logs of who everyone’s messaging or calling. We also can’t see your shared location and we don’t share your contacts with Facebook.

With these updates, none of that is changing. Instead, the update includes new options people will have to message a business on WhatsApp, and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data. While not everyone shops with a business on WhatsApp today, we think that more people will choose to do so in the future and it’s important people are aware of these services. This update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook.

We’re now moving back the date on which people will be asked to review and accept the terms. No one will have their account suspended or deleted on February 8. We’re also going to do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security works on WhatsApp. We’ll then go to people gradually to review the policy at their own pace before new business options are available on May 15.

WhatsApp helped bring end-to-end encryption to people across the world and we are committed to defending this security technology now and in the future. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to us and to so many who have helped spread facts and stop rumors. We will continue to put everything we have into making WhatsApp the best way to communicate privately.