New Delhi, Jan 12: As WhatsApp faces intense scrutiny over its upcoming data and privacy policy, a new poll on Tuesday revealed that nearly one in two Indian users will not accept the updated terms of service.
WhatsApp’s new terms of service and privacy policy will go live on February 8. To continue using the platform, users will have to accept the terms and conditions. If the users do not accept the new terms of service, they will no longer be able to use WhatsApp.
According to the poll conducted by leading English news app Inshorts, 47 per cent respondents said that they would not accept the policy and will look for alternatives of the messaging app (like Telegram and Signal). Only about 14 per cent respondents did not see any privacy concerns, saying they will accept and continue using WhatsApp.
Over 39 per cent respondents said that they will accept the policy as they are not aware of any suitable alternatives at the moment, the poll showed. Over 1.8 lakh app users participated in the survey.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp on Tuesday issued a clarification, saying that individual chats would not be affected by the changes in its terms of service and privacy policy.
WhatsApp users in India and elsewhere are looking forward to join either Telegram or Signal, but are currently confused which app to choose from.
At about 500 million users globally and growing, Telegram has become a major problem for WhatsApp.
Over 400 million Indian WhatsApp users last week received an in-app notification from WhatsApp as part of an upcoming global roll-out for over 2 billion users, asking them to either accept the changes in its terms of service and privacy policy by February 8 or their accounts will be deleted.
The in-app notification did not elicit much details but clicking on the link clearly mentioned the key changes in how WhatsApp will collect and process users’ information going forward, and the partnership with Facebook, its parent company, as part of a larger unification drive between its family of apps.
