European consumer protection has heavily criticized WhatsApp for changing the terms of use.
The group promises improvement.
Brussels – There was sharp criticism from consumer advocates on Monday, March 6, 2023 on the WhatsApp messenger service.
Its data protection promises to the European Union (EU) are insufficient, as announced by the European Consumer Protection Umbrella Organization (BEUC) in Brussels.
There are, however, some concessions.
WhatsApp: Consumer advocates criticize data protection – changes promised
BEUC, which represents 46 national associations - including the German Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) - symbolically showed WhatsApp the "yellow card".
The association reports this in a press release.
Recently, WhatsApp had made headlines with new functions.
The EU Commission had previously stated that WhatsApp had agreed to be more transparent after months of talks and was now complying with EU requirements.
Among other things, it should be easier for consumers to reject updated user conditions.
In addition, "personal data of users should not be passed on to third parties for advertising purposes" or subsidiaries of the meta group such as Facebook, as the commission emphasized.
Consumer protection criticizes WhatsApp: promises to the EU are "not enough"
The dispute is around two years old: In May 2021, WhatsApp, which has not been working on some cell phones since this year, introduced new user conditions that, among other things, provided for the exchange of customer data with the parent company Meta.
The fact that the messenger service is now vowing improvements to the EU is “not good enough” and a disappointment for consumers, according to BEUC.
📣Our complaint against WhatsApp has now been closed with a commitment from the company to do better in the future...For us, this isn't good enough.
Find out what it means #WhatsUpWithWhatsApp 👉 https://t.co/HZEf7J871u pic.twitter.com/gXVV3v9fpU
— The Consumer Voice (@beuc) March 6, 2023
The big shortcoming of WhatsApp's concessions is that they would only apply to new users, not to those who have already agreed.
In 2021, consumers were forced by "aggressive advertising practices" to accept "unclear and misleading changes to the user conditions", according to BEUC in the press release.
WhatsApp: Strong criticism of data protection - EU welcomes the reforms
WhatsApp has "bombed" its users for months - and not with information on how the messenger service works.
Communicated that the app would stop working should they not accept the terms.
According to the BEUC, this clearly violates European consumer protection.
The fact that WhatsApp is now getting away with a promise to the EU is a “weak reaction” from the authorities.
"This highlights the need for reform to ensure more effective enforcement, especially in the case of EU-wide infringements," said consumer protection.
The EU, which recently announced tightening through a driver's license reform, does not seem to assess the situation as dramatically.
EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders even welcomed the WhatsApp promises.
"Users are now actively informed about adjustments to their contract and their decisions are respected instead of asking each time the app is opened," he said in Brussels.
(mef/afp)