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WhatsApp and Facebook logos: Both apps belong to the same company
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For WhatsApp, new terms of use and a new privacy policy will apply from February 8th.
If you still want to use the widespread chat app from this date on, you have to agree to the changes at some point in the next few weeks.
German users are currently made aware of the changes to the guidelines when the program is launched.
The message on the display can be answered with »Agree« - then the new rules will be accepted - or hidden with »Not now« until further notice.
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WhatsApp hint: "Not now" and "Agree" as options
Photo: WhatsApp
According to the pop-up in the app, there are only two “major updates”: the question of how WhatsApp treats user data, and “how companies with Facebook-hosted services can save and manage their WhatsApp chats”.
According to an official WhatsApp explanation page, the first point concerns the legal basis of the data processing.
The second point is therefore aimed at companies that use WhatsApp as a communication tool.
In the meantime, one reads much more drastic things on the net: Allegedly, the new rules are supposed to result in more WhatsApp data being automatically passed on to Facebook, for example to optimize advertising on the social network.
But is that true?
That's in the privacy policy
The new terms of use for WhatsApp can be viewed in detail here.
In the new data protection guideline, which can be read here in peace, the section “How WhatsApp works with other Facebook companies” has actually been revised, which shows that WhatsApp and other Facebook services exchange certain information “for security and integrity of all products from Facebook companies «- for example to combat spam and abuse.
The service also makes it clear: “WhatsApp also works with the other Facebook companies and shares information with them so that they can help us operate, provide, improve, understand, adapt, support, and assign our services market."
But then there is a decisive restriction: "None of the information that WhatsApp passes on on this basis may be used for the Facebook companies' own purposes." Facebook therefore receives technical data from WhatsApp and - as stated on this explanation page - even phone numbers and device IDs, but it is not allowed to use such information to improve its display system.
This regulation has been around for a long time.
WhatsApp says that itself
A WhatsApp company spokesman told SPIEGEL on request that there were "no changes to the data transfer practices of WhatsApp in the European region (including Great Britain) resulting from the updated terms of use and the privacy policy."
He also says: "To avoid any doubts: It is still the case that WhatsApp does not share WhatsApp user data from the European region with Facebook, so that Facebook can use this data to improve its products or advertisements." This statement is consistent current tweets from a WhatsApp manager.
It also suggests that for users in Europe, in essence, everything remains the same when it comes to data transfer.
WhatsApp has so far not commented publicly on a SPIEGEL request about the data of those users who were able to explicitly object to part of the data transfer to Facebook via an opt-out option in 2016.
So far, however, there is nothing to suggest that such an opt-out should no longer count.
This creates confusion
The current confusion on the internet about the new rules is mainly due to the fact that WhatsApp also presents an updated data protection guideline in German on its website, which only applies to users outside the "European Region" and therefore outside Germany.
According to this declaration, which can easily be confused with the other, WhatsApp's cooperation with other Facebook companies is closer in markets outside Europe, as shown by sentences such as: »We can use the information you have received and you can use the information, that we share with you, operate, provide, improve, understand, individualize, support and market our services or your offers, including products from Facebook companies. "
The rules not intended for Germany therefore go much further with regard to data exchange.
Ultimately, it is important to look at the correct guidelines, otherwise the changes will be more drastic than they actually are.
At the same time, as a user, you should also be aware that with WhatsApp you are using a product that has been collecting a relatively large amount of data for a theoretically simple messenger for years - which can be understood with Apple's new data protection overview (more on this here).
Other chat apps such as Signal are much more privacy-friendly.
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