You can use the app without agreeing to the policy… at least for a little while.
When Facebook made some slightly worrisome changes to WhatsApp’s privacy policy back in January, a large contingent of users immediately jumped ship in disgust, with many switching to other, less intrusive apps like Signal (which, incidentally, got so many new users at that time, their servers crashed for a day). WhatsApp originally set a February deadline for all remaining users to accept the new policy, lest they lose access to the app, but in an effort to foster a little bit of goodwill with their furious userbase, they pushed the deadline back to May 15. Now, with May 15 coming up this weekend, WhatsApp has made some clarifications on what exactly will happen to those who don’t accept the new policy.
“No one will have their accounts deleted or lose functionality of WhatsApp on May 15th because of this update,” WhatsApp clarified in an FAQ update.
“For the last several weeks we’ve displayed a notification in WhatsApp providing more information about the update. After giving everyone time to review, we’re continuing to remind those who haven’t had the chance to do so to review and accept. After a period of several weeks, the reminder people receive will eventually become persistent.”
What this means in simple terms is that rather than instantly stripping your account of all functionality on the deadline, your account will instead be gradually hindered over time until it’s effectively worthless if you don’t accept the new policy.
WhatsApp will gradually stop working if you don't agree to its new privacy policy https://t.co/34QBQAscnQ pic.twitter.com/dlh53N6AUT
— Engadget (@engadget) May 10, 2021
“You won’t be able to access your chat list, but you can still answer incoming phone and video calls. If you have notifications enabled, you can tap on them to read or respond to a message or call back a missed phone or video call,” the FAQ explains “After a few weeks of limited functionality, you won’t be able to receive incoming calls or notifications and WhatsApp will stop sending messages and calls to your phone.”
WhatsApp has said that no accounts will be deleted for not agreeing to the policy, though there is a proviso in the policy that states accounts that are inactive for 120 days may be scrapped.