*BREAKING NEWS:* WhatsApp is delaying the roll out of new business features following user backlash over the company’s data sharing practices.

The delay is a setback for WhatsApp’s plan to generate revenue by facilitating commercial exchanges on the messaging app, which Facebook acquired for $19 billion in 2014 but has been slow to monetize.

WhatsApp said on Friday users will no longer have to review and accept its updated terms by Feb. 8, nor will they have their accounts suspended or deleted by that date.

Since 2016, WhatsApp has shared certain information with Facebook, including your phone number, unless you were one of the select few users who chose to opt out of data sharing while the option was still available that year. WhatsApp does not, however, look at people’s chat messages or listen to their phone calls, and WhatsApp conversations are end-to-end encrypted to protect against those abuses.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)