WhatsApp Delays New Privacy Policy by Three Months Amid Severe Criticism

 WhatsApp announced delaying by three months the implementation of a new privacy policy that has faced massive backlash with tens of millions of its users moving from the platform to rivals like Signal and Telegram. The policy change was originally scheduled to come into effect on February 8, the Facebook-owned company said. It has clarified that the update does not affect data sharing with Facebook with regard to personal conversations or other profile information and only addresses business chats in the event a user converses with a company''s customer service platform through WhatsApp.

"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 said in a company blog.

"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," it said further.