It seems reassuring, but doesn’t say anything about what data Facebook does have access to, or clearly explain the changes it’s making to the privacy policy which do apply to business messaging. The new terms and conditions applying to WhatsApp are just the latest example of what has been Facebook’s practice for a long time – signing people up under one set of terms and conditions which are then revised, over time, to be more permissive and share more of the user’s data by default. “There are two separate issues at hand, the first of which is about personal data privacy. He’s concerned about the dangers of weakening encryption technologies and how they threaten the security and privacy of billions of users online. We spoke to Robin Wilton, Senior Advisor for Internet Trust at

Of course, WhatsApp and Facebook execs would say that. It remains the case that WhatsApp does not share European Region WhatsApp user data with Facebook for the purpose of Facebook using this data to improve its products or ads.- Niamh Sweeney 7, 2021 It remains the case that WhatsApp does not share European Region WhatsApp user data with Facebook for the purpose of Facebook using this data to improve its products or ads.”ģ/5 There are no changes to WhatsApp’s data-sharing practices in the Europe arising from this update. Finally, it feels like there’s actually a benefit to offset all those GDPR pop-ups.īack in January WhatsApp’s EMEA policy director Niamh Sweeney tweeted: “There are no changes to WhatsApp’s data-sharing practices in the Europe arising from this update. These data protection regulations place much tighter restrictions on the information that can be shared between companies, meaning there are in fact no changes to how data is shared in the updated policy. Users in the UK and Europe are seeing a different privacy policy to the rest of the world because of GDPR. It does not impact how people communicate privately with friends or family wherever they are in the world.” He also said, “It’s important for us to be clear this update describes business communication and does not change WhatsApp’s data sharing practices with Facebook. In fact, about 175 million people message a business account each day on WhatsApp and more want to do so.” Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp at Facebook tweeted, “Not everyone may realise how common it is to WhatsApp message businesses in many countries. It’s likely Facebook wants to replicate the success of payments in WeChat, the popular Chinese messaging app. The company is planning to introduce a payment system within WhatsApp so that users can purchase from businesses. The 2021 changes to the WhatsApp privacy policy were originally detailed back in October in thisįacebook blog post.

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