There have been many voices against the sharing of data between WhatsApp, the messaging app and Facebook, the social network that owns it. While other competing services such as Telegram and Signal recorded download peaks, Mark Zuckerberg's multinational company decided to take a step back by postponing the update to a date to be defined. And in the meantime he tries to dispel the doubts.
“WhatsApp is built on a simple concept: Everything you share with family and friends stays with you,” Says facebook spokesperson from Menlo Park, California.
The latest update wouldn't change anything according to the Web giant. Instead, it would include new “optional features that allow users to exchange messages with companies that use WhatsApp and offer greater transparency on how we collect and use data. At the moment, the use of WhatsApp for shopping is not very widespread. However, we believe it is important that you are aware of this service, because in the future more and more users will choose to use it ”.
The project has been clear for some time: to have a service on the model of the Chinese WeChat, owned by Tencent, through which you can do more or less everything starting with purchases.
Meanwhile, Facebook also launched into the world of e-commerce earlier this year, allying itself with Shopify, to become an alternative platform to Amazon. The update, according to the suspicions, would have allowed the giant to unify the information of the chat and that of the social network for commercial purposes. But evidently the outcry was too clear to proceed, at least according to the established timetable.
“We are postponing the date on which we will ask our users to review and accept the terms,” concludes the company. "Gradually, and according to the timing of each, we will invite our users to review the information before May 15, when the new business options will be available." In short, we change our approach by taking time, hoping to dispel doubts. Starting with those of the European data protection authorities.
After the outcry against the sharing of data between the chat service and Facebook for commercial purposes, the company of Mark Zuckerberg moves the date of the change of the terms.
