After hundreds of WhatsApp users protested against it, the company have halted the controversial privacy policy update with the company saying that users will now be given an extra three months to agree to their new rules.

WhatsApp stops privacy policy update after user complaints: They have also said that they are committed to issuing information in advance so as not to confuse it’s many users and also to clarify what they say is ‘misinformation’. User of the application originally only had until 8th February to agree to the new terms and conditions or face not being able to continue using it, however this date has now been put back to 15th May, allowing people to review the policy at their own pace.

Until then the company said that they will “do a lot more to clear up the misinformation around how privacy and security works on WhatsApp”. The most worrying concern for users of the app was that their information would be shared with Facebook although WhatsApp say that the new policy will not “expand our ability to share data with Facebook”, and that it is instead focused on its new business updates, which allow companies to host their shops on Facebook and communicate with users through WhatsApp.

In a post that revealed the delay the company said “We’ve heard from so many people how much confusion there is around our recent update. There’s been a lot of misinformation causing concern and we want to help everyone understand our principles and the facts. WhatsApp was built on a simple idea: what you share with your friends and family stays between you. This means we will always protect your personal conversations with end-to-end encryption, so that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook can see these private messages.