WhatsApp has frightened millions of users worldwide with new data protection conditions.
Now the messenger service plays for time.
The Facebook subsidiary
WhatsApp
has caused outrage worldwide with new data protection rules.
Millions of users turned
their backs
on the
messenger service
.
Now the group is rowing back - but only a little.
Menlo Park -
has been criticized worldwide for the planned introduction of new data protection rules.
Many users have even turned their backs on the messenger service.
Now the group is playing for time - and is postponing the introduction of the new data protection rules by a good three months.
Instead of February 8, users should agree to the new data protection guideline by May 15, said
surprisingly late on Friday evening, German time.
According to its own information,
wants to
create better opportunities for communication with companies with the changes.
The so-called end-to-end encryption, with which chat content is only visible to the participating users, but not even to
itself in plain text, will not be shaken, the company assured.
There are also no
plans to
forward data to
.
Outside the
EU
, some
user data has been sent to
for advertising purposes or to improve products - albeit since 2016.
WhatsApp: Competitors report strong growth
With more than two billion users,
is the largest chat service in the world.
It is followed by Facebook Messenger with 1.3 billion users.
In the past few weeks,
rivals such as the controversial
Telegram
,
Signal
or
Threema have
reported strong increases - because users left
after the announcement of the new data protection directive.
lamented the spread of false information about the changes, which they want to clear up by mid-May.
The fact that
WhatsApp should
also become a channel for communication between companies and their customers has been one of the central ideas for some time as to how Facebook could ultimately earn money with the chat service.
The online network bought
in 2014 for around 22 billion dollars.
Another consideration was advertising in the so-called status area of the app, in which users can post photos for their contacts for a day.
But this has been put on hold.
The founder of
,
Jan Koum
and
Brian Acton
, left Facebook several years ago.
According to media reports, there were differences of opinion with Facebook boss
Mark Zuckerberg
.
Acton is a central donor for the Signal app - which uses the same encryption technology as
.
Acton joined calls to leave Facebook following the Cambridge Analytica data scandal.
At the same time, Mark Zuckerberg presented the plan some time ago to focus Facebook more on completely encrypted communication.
Even should
that Facebook Messenger and the chat feature of
to share a technical platform.
The US government and more than 40 states are currently calling for Facebook to be broken up by splitting off
and Instagram.
A common technical infrastructure would make such projects more difficult.
(dpa / utz)
List of rubric lists: © Catherine Waibel