There is a saying that is often fulfilled in many industries and goes like this: “If you don’t pay anything to use a product, you are the product”. And whatever has to do with the technological field, it all revolves around trading with data. Not pure and stable data (not always) but with the analytics of the data in question. with trends. Knowing what we’re doing is worth a lot of money, as multinational tech companies consistently show.
WhatsApp lived more or less calmly with annual subscriptions that few paid for, but when it was acquired by Facebook, all eyes were on the app. Now, after the confusion created by the confusing terms of use of the past 2021, Europe is sending a letter to the messaging giant again. They have a month to clarify what they are doing with the data usage from their users. One month and nothing more to talk about.
Europe doubts WhatsApp’s policy and forces itself to reveal
The first of the major upheavals around WhatsApp and what it does with user data came when it started demanding (quite necessarily) from its users. adopting a new policy. This policy came to say that they have permission to share some of the data generated by their users against Meta companies. Facebook and company to understand us.
It was such a mess that WhatsApp had to delay the entry into force of the new policy several times, and they were reminded from Europe that the policy in question violated the way it works in Europe. Since GDPR is in effect in Europe, expressly prohibits removal of user data from the continent. This logically prevented WhatsApp from moving its data to the United States, and the company even hinted (giving Instagram and Facebook as examples) that it might stop working in Europe before it was impossible to monetize its business there.
At the beginning of the year, Europe had notified WhatsApp that it needed to put some things in order to continue working normally in the Old Continent. The company had to make a statement to Europe what are they doing with our data when questioning the new privacy policy. In short, WhatsApp had to say, among other things, whether they were monetizing the data in question as it wasn’t entirely clear.
Now, almost six months later, Europe got tired of waiting and posted a new message to Facebook. This letter shows that those in charge of WhatsApp have one month to finish answering questions submitted by Europe at the beginning of the year. The letter arrives signed by the European Commission and the Network for Cooperation for Consumer Protection and obviously this is an ultimatum.
It is the RCPC that believes that WhatsApp is not clear enough about its data policy and that the company needs to clarify a few points. Not only to Europe, but also clarifying this information in the terms of use. WhatApp should specify how to notify users of future changes in terms of use (which was really confusing last time) and above all, You must declare whether you are making money from the misuse of your users’ data. Black on white.
More info | European Commission