Starting from January 7, many WhatsApp users have begun to receive on their mobile phones, upon opening the app, a notice asking to accept the “new terms” of use of the messaging service and the privacy policy. The warning can be removed, but then reverts to a later opening, and clearly states that those who do not accept will no longer be able to use WhatsApp starting February 8, the day the new terms take effect.
This warning created some concern. Some news sites, including in Italy, have written that Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, is preparing for serious violations of user privacy. Signal, a competing and very privacy-friendly messaging app (also recommended by American entrepreneur Elon Musk) has jumped to the top of the charts of the most downloaded apps. Much of this concern, however, is the result of a misunderstanding.
WhatsApp has sent the warning to all of its two billion users, and in the rest of the world indeed some of the changes that require approval could be a privacy concern. But in the European Union these changes do not apply. EU citizens are protected by the GDPR, the European regulation for the protection of personal data, which is one of the most advanced privacy laws in the world, and Facebook, like many other internet companies, is forced to treat citizens of the EU in a different (and basically better) way than all the others.
– Read also: The United States wants to take Facebook apart
What are the changes of WhatsApp outside the EU
In the United States and other countries of the world, excluding Europe, the new terms of which WhatsApp claims the approval have created concern because the messaging service intends to make it mandatory to share some data of its users with Facebook, the parent company, for commercial purposes and to improve the user experience. This means that among the data that Facebook uses to show personalized advertising there will also be some that come from WhatsApp, such as the mobile number, the contact address book, status messages and other information. Sharing already existed before, but it could be excluded; now it will be mandatory.
However, the advertising will remain on Facebook and Instagram, another company of the group: currently there are no plans to start showing advertising on WhatsApp anywhere in the world.
What are the changes of WhatsApp in the EU
As we said, the terms of use and the privacy policy of WhatsApp in the European Union are significantly different from those that apply to the rest of the world, thanks to EU laws that protect the privacy of citizens (for those interested: this is the international privacy policy and this is the one valid for the EU). In the rules that affect Europe, the changes that have worried many American users, including Elon Musk, are not there. It is enough to compare the warning that WhatsApp sent to international users and that of European users: in the second one point is missing, the one related to the sharing of data with Facebook.
So why did WhatsApp send the notice for the new terms to European users as well? Mainly to update some elements regarding the section of WhatsApp for shop owners and commercial services, which should allow companies to communicate with their customers via WhatsApp. Also, it is quite common for apps to update their terms of use periodically. On Twitter Enrico Ferraris, a lawyer who deals with digital things, compared the text of the old WhatsApp information with the new one, which is required for approval these days, and found no important differences regarding privacy .
In an official statement, WhatsApp also denied that there are any changes in the way data is shared on Facebook: “There are no changes to the way WhatsApp data is shared in the European Region (including the United Kingdom) deriving from the update of the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy. WhatsApp does not share the data of WhatsApp users of the European area with Facebook in order to allow Facebook to use such data to improve its products or advertisements “.
If WhatsApp wants to share European user data for commercial and advertising purposes, it will have to enter into a new agreement with the EU authorities. For now, nothing like this is in the works.
– Read also: Why WhatsApp is important for Facebook
The contents of the chats
It is worth remembering that WhatsApp does not read and does not use information from user chats, neither in the United States nor in Europe nor in any part of the world, because it is no longer able to access it. Since 2014, WhatsApp has applied a protection system to its chats called “end-to-end encryption” and which makes the contents of the chats inaccessible to anyone other than the sender or recipient. Due to the way the protection system works, WhatsApp, at present, could not access the chats of its users even if it wanted to.
Furthermore, the particular encryption system used by WhatsApp is the same as the rival Signal app, which is considered to be the best on the market. This means that the contents of WhatsApp chats are protected as much as those on Signal (which however has more privacy defense functions).
– Read also: What is special about Signal
WhatsApp in Europe does not share any data with Facebook?
Even in Europe, WhatsApp shares some user data with Facebook: it has been doing so for years. The main difference with the rest of the world is that in Europe it cannot do this for commercial or marketing purposes, but only for technical and security purposes. For example, if you make a video call on WhatsApp, some data is transferred to Facebook, because the technological infrastructure for making video calls is Facebook. This is a behavior allowed by the GDPR, even if some experts argue that the data required by WhatsApp is still too much.
This data includes account information such as phone number, mobile phone information and user's IP address, among other things.
So all the worry around WhatsApp is unfounded?
If you live in the European Union and weren't worried about WhatsApp before, there is no reason to be worried now: the new terms for which approval is required do not change much when it comes to privacy. If, on the other hand, you were previously concerned about WhatsApp privacy practices, these remain unchanged.
In this sense, the reasons for adopting Signal, which remains the most recommended messaging app by privacy experts, have not changed either. Both apps are equally secure because they use the same encryption protocol, as we said, and the chat contents are protected both in Signal and in WhatsApp (even if only the former is open source, and allows external experts to evaluate its security). WhatsApp, however, records much more information that is not related to chats, but to the user's profile, his devices and his habits: a behavior common to many other famous services such as Instagram, Gmail and TikTok.
