Early last month, WhatsApp received a heavy backlash after it brought a forceful privacy terms and conditions that would allow Facebook (yes Facebook!) to access and manage users' data.....giving users no option to opt-out or decline.
Due to Facebook's bad history of misuse of people's data and as well as constant data breaches, millions of WhatsApp users switched over to rival messaging platforms such as Telegram and Signal. Due to the mass migration, WhatsApp moved the date which the policy was supposed to go into effect from February 8 to May 8.
Over the course of this time, WhatsApp has been running advertorials trying to make people understand that their data will be in safe hands.
"We've heard from so many people how much confusion there is around our recent update. There's been a lot of misinformation around causing concern and we want to help everyone understand our principles and the facts," WhatsApp said in a blog post last month
Last week, WhatsApp said that it will allow users to review its planned privacy update at "their own pace" and will display a banner that better explains the changes in the terms.
However, you may be wondering what will happen if come May 8, and you don't agree to the new terms and conditions from WhatsApp?
According to an email WhatsApp sent to one of its merchant partners (reviewed by TechCrunch), the facebook-owned company said it will "slowly ask" users to comply with the new terms "in order to have full functionality of WhatsApp" starting May 15.
Those who, however, refuse to accept the new terms after May 15 will still be able to receive calls and notifications for a few weeks, but won't be able to read or send messages from the app. But then it doesn't end there.
WhatsApp has a new policy of deleting accounts that have been inactive for 120 days, and you will most likely fall among those accounts when you don't accept the new policy after May 15.