At the request of the EU Commission, the messaging app promises to clarify the sometimes confusing terms of use.

The European Commission announces in a press release that it has concluded an agreement with WhatsApp on the terms of use for European users. WhatsApp would have made a promise not to share user data with external applications or within parent company Meta’s ecosystem. In addition, the messaging app will communicate more clearly about changes in the terms.

In concrete terms, this means that WhatsApp must explain to you more clearly what they are changing and how this affects your rights as a user. If you do not agree, WhatsApp must offer you the opportunity to change the terms of use and WhatsApp must not send you a recurring notification even after refusal. Of course, if the rejection of the terms of use has an impact on the function of the app, this must also be made clear.

The European Commission is satisfied with the outcome of the talks, testified Belgian politician Didier Reynders. “I applaud WhatsApp’s commitment to align its practices with EU regulations, to actively inform users about changes to their contracts and to respect their choices, rather than asking them every time they open the app. Consumers have the right to understand what they are consenting to and what that choice entails, so they can decide whether they want to continue using the platform,” says Reynders.

Learned from mistakes

To understand why these changes are important to Europe, take a look back to January 2021, when WhatsApp unintentionally caused confusion by sending out a notification to all users about privacy policy changes. Everyone had to agree to share their data with Facebook, under penalty of losing use of the app, if they didn’t accept the changes before a certain date.

The report prompted many users to switch to Signal or Telegram, and eventually WhatsApp got back on its feet as well. The messaging app stated that the changes only apply to business users and not within the European Union, where it would not have been GDPR compliant at all.

The confused communication on WhatsApp led to a complaint from the European consumer organization BEUC. In the summer of 2022, Reynders started talks to provide more clarity on WhatsApp.

Yellow card

BEUC is also only moderately satisfied with the result. The organization is disappointed that WhatsApp only received a “yellow card” from the commission:

“More transparency and easy ways to opt out of future policy changes are simply not enough. Unfortunately, with this weak response, the authorities are sending a very worrying signal, accepting that a tech giant like WhatsApp can violate consumer rights and then only getting away with promising to do better in the future,” the response reads.