WhatsApp’s new terms of services which started taking effect in may have created unrest among the European users of the chat service. The Facebook-owned social media platform is now facing a European complaint after its allegedly “aggressive” rollout of new terms and services. The new policy has created outrage among consumer-rights campaigners and activists.
Many claims that the updated policy remains opaque and is impossible for users to get a clear understanding of what consequences WhatsApp’s changes entail for their privacy. The following statement has been made by the officials of the European consumer association BEUC.
“WhatsApp has been bombarding users for months with aggressive and persistent pop-up messages to force them to accept its new terms of use and privacy policy. They’ve been telling users that their access to their app will be cut off if they do not accept the new terms” and remained “deliberately vague” about data processing.
WhatsApp’s policy change was originally announced in January and was supposed to be immediately implemented. However, it was forced to delay the introduction of the policy until May, because of confusion and backlash of several users over the data it will collect and how it will share that information with its parent Facebook.
BEUC stated that it has submitted a complaint with the European Commission and the European network of consumer authorities, and the filing also urges regulators to open an investigation into the practices and demands of the social media service.
The update “explains the options people have to message a business on WhatsApp and provides further transparency about how we collect and use data. The update does not expand our ability to share data with Facebook, and does not impact the privacy of your messages with friends or family, wherever they are in the world.”
