This year 2021 WhatsApp announced a change in its privacy policy for users It has been so controversial that even from today it will show certain changes in Europe. Recall that it had to delay its entry into force, clarify many points because users and also the authorities were skeptical and many users migrated to other platforms such as Telegram and Signal.
Starting today, users in the European Union will begin to see a banner (many still do not have it, but we can be attentive, because it should happen soon) about the privacy policy of WhatsApp, within the application. We will not have to accept it (most of us have already done so throughout this year, and those who did not, even in October continued to receive notices to do so).
It must be remembered that WhatsApp was punished in September with a fine of 225 million euros for not being clear with how you use our data and how you share it with Facebook and with other companies.
The big problem that the authorities saw is that the messaging tool does not give enough information to users and non-users about what it does with their data and there is a lack of transparency in this regard. In the fine, in addition to the money that the company had to pay, the firm was asked to add more information to the document about your privacy policy, such as the list of Irish and EU laws on which it relies to process the data.
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Changes to the privacy policy renewed today
The changes include a reorganization of the document and the addition of more details. It has also included more information on the reasons why data could be shared internally with the and how that data is protected. Among other things, it adds the new privacy policy that:
He also adds that WhatsApp is one of Meta’s companies (due to the name change of this social media empire). In the privacy policy that was available until yesterday, dated January, it was indicated that WhatsApp was owned by Facebook.
One of the main changes found in the new (and very long) privacy policy is how our information ends up in the hands of companies based in third countries such as the United States, Israel or the United Kingdom that have other rules regarding the protection of privacy. The text reads like this:
We work with Meta companies and other Meta-owned companies located in the United States and Spain that provide infrastructure and data hosting services, including the use of data centers in conjunction with related equipment and services that are used to operate the Services. We share the information we collect with these companies.
You have to remember that depending on where a cloud company that stores data has its headquarters, it changes the privacy laws that it has to comply with.
We work with Meta companies based in the UK, Israel and the United States who provide us with business analysis services to determine, for example, how many unique users we have compared to other services offered by Meta companies. We share your account information (phone number), device and connection information (identifiers associated with the same device or account, hardware model, operating system, versions of the application, country phone code and network code), user preferences (records about the acceptance of Conditions and user settings) and information about use (when you last used WhatsApp and the date on which you registered your account for the first time, and the time of the activities).
Another change that we have found addresses one of the most controversial issues in WhatsApp’s privacy policy, which is the information it shares with Facebook and other services (just add more details, the bulk of the information remains). The new privacy policy reads like this:
Thirdparty services. When you, or other users with whom you interact, use third-party services or other products of Meta companies linked through our Services, the providers of such services or products may receive information about you that you or others share with them. For example, if you use a data backup service integrated with our Services (such as iCloud or Google Drive), they will receive the information you share with them, such as WhatsApp messages, and if you search for a group’s profile photo on the Internet from WhatsApp, the search engine provider will receive the search term you used. If you interact with a third-party service or other products of Meta companies through our Services, such as when you use the player in the application to play content from a third-party platform (for example, YouTube or Facebook), it is possible that the provider of said service or product receives information, such as your IP address and technical data indicating that the request comes from WhatsApp.
WhatsApp cannot give our information to Facebook, but it is not clear that it does not
Some of this information was already detailed. Now it expands. It should be remembered that when Facebook bought Whastapp for an exorbitant amount of money, the authorities of the European Union were reluctant to the transaction due to the possibility that these two giants shared information about citizens. Something that Facebook leader Mark Zuckerberg flatly denied. We later learned that the Facebook leader purposely lied to get the acquisition approved.
In the European Union, in fact, thanks to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR / RGPD) the capacity of action of this privacy policy that WhatsApp insists that we accept from the beginning of this year is limited, since it prevents Facebook from sharing WhatsApp data with the rest of the company for the company’s own interest. But as in the history of this company a long list of lies has been known, many people (including data authorities), are not trusting what will happen.
The company says that even though the data cannot be shared, the privacy policy must be accepted because “in the event that we decide to share data with Facebook companies for this purpose in the future, We will only do so when we reach an agreement with the Irish Data Protection Commission (headquarters of the company in Europe) regarding a future mechanism that allows us such use. We will keep you updated on new experiences we present and our information practices. “
And these allegations they have raised suspicions From the beginning. In the privacy policy updated today you can find much more information about how the company shares your data, what data it shares and with which countries.