Re:WhatsApp delays privacy changes amid a backlash and user ...
by julianlam on Sunday January 17, 2021 @12:55PM
(#25812977)
Hm, what if I accept the terms but do not share my contact list with WhatsApp? Seems like a tidy loophole.
Re:WhatsApp delays privacy changes amid a backlash and user ...
by cassianoleal on Tuesday January 19, 2021 @05:37AM
(#25831983)
It's not. There's a lot of metadata there that's not dependent on your contact list.
They still have the phone numbers of the people you're in touch with, they have the groups you're part of and all the phone numbers there. To get (most of) your contact list, they just need to cross that information with everybody else's contacts list.
Your not sharing is not worth much when everybody else is sharing.
On top of that, they also know times you're online, potentially location, who you're messaging with, who you're making audio/video calls with and for how long, etc.
Since they seem to have only delayed the deadline but not changed the terms, I assume all accounts from users who have not accepted the new terms will be deleted on that date.
That likely means not only no access to messages, but the deletion of them altogether - or at least I count on that but I don't have a way to verify it.