The new terms and conditions of WhatsApp continue to cause controversy. The Facebook-owned company faced an avalanche of complaints on Monday. Eight member entities of the European Consumers Organization (BEUC) have filed complaints with the European Commission and with the European network of consumer authorities. The axis of the protest are the “ persistent, recurring and intrusive notifications that push users to accept updates to the privacy policy”.
Although WhatsApp backtracked in May and said that will not limit the functions of the application to those people who do not accept its new Terms of Service, it made it clear that the notice will continue to appear until they do. Residents of the European Union, although protected by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), will also have to accept the new privacy policy. However, they will be governed by WhatsApp Ireland Limited and the data collection will be more limited.
BEUC assures in a statement that the terms and conditions of WhatsApp “are not transparent or understandable for all users.” In addition, he points out that “he has not been able to explain the nature of the changes in simple and intelligible language.” At this point it is necessary to remember that the company has failed to communicate its privacy policy, sowing confusion and causing thousands of people to abandon the messaging service and migrate to other platforms such as Telegram and Signal.
WhatsApp 'pressures users'
The organization has not hesitated to ensure that WhasApp “continues to pressure users” to accept its policy. This comes amid scrutiny by the European Data Protection Authorities for breaches of the GDPR. Although BEUC's claim is independent of the ongoing investigation, the organization urges the authorities to speed up a definition in this regard. Regarding “persistent notifications”, they ensure that they exert undue pressure on users and undermine their freedom of choice . As a result, they “violate the EU directive on unfair commercial practices.”
“WhatsApp has been bombarding users for months with aggressive and persistent pop-up messages to force them to agree to its new terms of use and privacy policy. Users have been told that their application will be cut off if they do not accept the new terms. However, consumers do not know what they are actually agreeing to. WhatsApp has been deliberately vague about this and consumers would be exposed to extensive data processing without valid consent. That is why we ask the authorities to take swift measures against WhatsApp to ensure that it respects the rights of consumers. ”
Monique Goyens, CEO of BEUC Indeed, WhatsApp has also been under the sights of different European authorities. In January, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) expressed concern about the messaging app's maneuvers. Later, in May, the Hamburg Data Protection Agency banned Facebook from using WhatsApp users' data.
