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WhatsApp postpones privacy changes, but Hong Kong experts say outcry has already evolved into crisis of confidence
- WhatsApp says users will now have until May, rather than next month, to decide whether to consent to new data-sharing terms
- But Hong Kong experts say the move is unlikely to stem the exodus of users, even if there are ‘not many privacy issues with the new policy’
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Amid a worldwide backlash against recently announced changes to its privacy terms, instant messaging giant WhatsApp on Saturday announced it would give users until May – rather than early next month – to decide whether they consented to the new arrangement.
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However, the postponement was unlikely to stem the recent exodus of users to other encrypted messaging apps, Hong Kong technology experts said, noting that the uproar over the changes had already morphed into a crisis of confidence, despite WhatsApp’s repeated insistence that users’ data would not be compromised.
“Users who have been angry over this will not be pacified,” said Francis Fong Po-kiu, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation.
“There are, in fact, not many privacy issues with the new policy. But this has become a confidence problem. It’s like when you decide which bank to put your money in, you’d only choose the one that you like.”
Hong Kong’s privacy commissioner for personal data, Ada Chung Lai-ling – who earlier wrote to Whatsapp’s parent company, Facebook, to express concern over the changes – on Saturday urged the makers of the app to provide more information on the new policy to reassure the public.
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