More and more problems arise for WhatsApp in the European Union , again associated with its privacy practices. In this case, the European Commission is going to investigate complaints from consumer organizations about the change in conditions that WhatsApp tried to make in mid-2021.
In fact, this has already earned WhatsApp from the EU a fine of 225 million euros applied in September 2021, but the investigations continue. Now we are going to analyze the privacy problems denounced by BEUC , which brings together several European consumer associations.
The next step will be a “dialogue with WhatsApp to clarify its suspected practices of violating laws that protect consumers .” The European Commission has already questioned Meta (parent of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram) many times, and it is likely that this “dialogue” will result in concrete actions against the company.
The BEUC organization considers that WhatsApp’s “relentless” insistence that we accept the new conditions harmed consumers. He considers that the privacy changes were unclear , and that the threat of losing access to the account was also used to force users.
He also has concerns about the privacy implications and the possibility of data being shared with other companies . Let us remember that, for citizens of the European Union, the possibility of sharing data with Facebook was never raised.
However, the European Commission remains concerned about the lack of clarity on whether it respects the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), both the messaging app and Meta as a whole.
From BEUC it is required to clarify privacy practices , and in addition to applying the necessary changes to comply with the laws, even if users accepted the new conditions under pressure from WhatsApp.
We must be attentive to this process, which can take a long time, but it is clear that the European Commission does not see well the use of personal data by WhatsApp , and we should not be surprised by new sanctions in the future.
