WhatsApp privacy policy update: accept it or lose access to these features

Published On: May 15, 2021

Highlights

WhatsApp has removed the May 15th deadline to accept the new terms for users.
WhatsApp will keep sending users reminders to agree to the new privacy policy.
After few weeks, people will not be able to use some of its features.

WhatsApp has removed the May 15th deadline for accepting the new privacy policy. In fact, the social messaging app now says people will not lose their account once the deadline is over, which comes as a big relief to millions of users out there. People over the past few months have been getting notification pop-ups in the app that asks them to accept the new privacy policy terms from WhatsApp. The new terms are said to give Facebook a stronger hold on the data that can be shared from WhatsApp. This has raised concerns among privacy experts, who knew that this would eventually come. You can find more details about WhatsApp’s new terms in the FAQ page over here.

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Your WhatsApp account will remain active after May 15th

Yes, WhatsApp users on all platforms can continue using their accounts even if they do not accept the new privacy policy. While the May 15th deadline has been delayed, WhatsApp says it will keep reminding you about accepting the new terms, and you will eventually have to accept them. Those who do not agree to the new policy right now will continue to get the alerts, which as WhatsApp admits, will become persistent after a period of several weeks. That’s not all, the end game of not accepting the privacy policy has a greater consequence, which WhatsApp has finally revealed to the world.

While the May 15th deadline has been delayed, WhatsApp says it will keep reminding you about accepting the new terms, and you will eventually have to accept them.

What happens if you don’t accept WhatsApp privacy policy?

After a few weeks, the notification alerts to accept the new policy will become persistent. Is that the only concern WhatsApp users will face because of not agreeing to the privacy policy? The answer is no. WhatsApp has clearly said that users will start seeing limited functionalities of the app. Which means some of the features will stop working on their account. What are these features?

You won’t be able to access your WhatsApp chat list.
You can answer incoming calls, read messaging by tapping the notification alert only.
After a few weeks, WhatsApp will stop sending incoming messages and calls to your account.

In such cases, most people might consider deleting their accounts. But thankfully WhatsApp won’t be doing that on its own. However, if an account remains inactive for 120 days, WhatsApp accounts are generally deleted. So, you can either switch over to a different messaging service, or you can accept the new privacy policy in order to keep using WhatsApp.