Have you accepted WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy? If not, the council may decide to keep you online for longer, considering WhatsApp’s decision to backtrack on its plan to kick users who don’t accept the new terms.

In January, the Facebook-owned messaging app rolled out notifications regarding its updated privacy policy that’ll allow more intricate tracking across its platforms (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp). Users were pushed to accept or face being kicked from the platform entirely. Before the first deadline came about, developers announced it would be extended to 19 May 2021. A date that’s quickly nearing.

Cast your vote on WhatsApp

Now, about a week before the dreaded deadline, WhatsApp has announced that users who don’t accept the terms by the prescribed date won’t be kicked from the platform. Instead, they’ll slowly start losing access to certain features. And we wish we were kidding, but this is starting to look like an extended season of Survivor. Will you survive the privacy policy meeting?

Of course, we’ll only be able to see the consequences of our actions in the ‘next episode’ following the 19 May deadline. If you still haven’t accepted the new terms, we’re inclined to say that anything can happen. According to The Next Web, you can lose access to some integral features of the app, “… such as not being able to access your chat list, and [you’ll] eventually stop getting message notifications…”

It’s almost like the app will slowly start falling apart if you don’t agree to their terms, which means anyone not keen on accepting them should probably decide on an alternative messaging app before the deadline. Losing access to your chats or notifications will inevitably break the app to a point where it doesn’t serve its function anymore.