I thought I ought to write a very brief post to outline my position on WhatsApp now that the deadline for accepting their Terms and Conditiond os Use (Ts & Cs) is fast approaching. You almost certainly, if you hadn’t accepted them earlier, will have begun to receive reminders to accept them or have your rights to use the app withdrawn. They are quite within their rights to enforce acceptance, you/we have no rights in this matter. It is a free app which we have free access to use under the Ts & Cs that Facebook choose to offer the app to us for use.
As explained in an earlier post, my immediate worries and concerns have been mitigated for the moment – and I most certainly will not want to conduct transactions with businesses through WhatsApp – so I will decline that option, and I will accept the new Ts & Cs next time I open the app. For how long my acceptance will be relevant will depend upon Facebook. Should they procede to withdraw their data centre from Ireland, to remove legislative scrutiny from the EU – which we currently, and fortuitously, gain benefit from as part of Facebook’s “European Region” – then I almost certainly will cancel my membership of all Facebook services, including Messenger and Instagram as well. I just can’t trust Facebook Inc. That’s for another day, and for the moment I will just try and ensure my Facebook app privacy settings are to my liking!!