05/17/2021 5:36 AM
Clarín.com
Technology
Updated 05/17/2021 5:36 AM
The Secretary of Commerce of the Nation took another step against Facebook on Monday and prohibited it through a Resolution published in the Official Gazette from putting into effect the new Terms of Service and Privacy Policies of WhatsApp, which began to govern the last Saturday, considering that there would be a situation of
abuse of a dominant position.
In the document, the company is required to "refrain from implementing and / or suspending the update of the conditions of service and privacy policy of the WhatsApp application in Argentina,
for a term of ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY (180) days
or until the completion of the investigation "being carried out by the National Commission for the Defense of Competition (CNDC).
The Government considers that the new update could be incompatible with the
Antitrust Law
and Argentine legislation on the protection of personal data.
The CNDC had already imposed a precautionary measure that was notified to the company on Friday, one day before the entry into force of the update in question, which
was going to be mandatory
for those users who wished to continue using the messaging service as up to now.
Resolution 492/2021, signed by
the Secretary of Commerce, Paula Español
, takes the mess to a higher level.
Among the recitals, mention is made of the antecedents in the United States, the European Union, Turkey, India, Germany, Italy and Brazil, where this transfer of personal data implicit in the update was not enabled
for violating different local regulations
.
"Considering the position of the firm FACEBOOK INC. And its subsidiaries, the
international antecedents
of investigations for abuse of a dominant position and the imminent entry into force of the new conditions of service and privacy policy of WHATSAPP INC. In the ARGENTINE REPUBLIC, the NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR THE DEFENSE OF COMPETITION understood that the issuance of an advance protection measure is appropriate, "says the Resolution.
And he adds: "If the exchange of user information established for May 15 of this year is verified, a database of users with a level of detail that cannot be replicated by other companies would be formed, giving rise to
potential exclusionary behaviors. and exploitative
".
On the other hand, it is highlighted that "
the supposed free
services offered by the firm FACEBOOK INC. And its controlled companies do not actually exist, to the extent that the essential asset that represents the information of the users of the platforms translates into monetary terms, hence the possibility of measuring the exploitation parameter of users who provide more information than is strictly necessary ".
WhatsApp has a penetration that exceeds
76% in mobile phones in Argentina
.
"The other messaging applications still have low penetration, therefore
the user cannot replace it
without losing this means of communication with many of their contacts," they had explained from the Spanish Secretariat.
To justify these measures, the Secretariat indicated that the new regulations that the company intended to impose generate "
a strong asymmetry
in the bargaining power between the user and WhatsApp."
"They will be mostly forced to accept the new Terms of Service, thereby enabling WhatsApp to collect
excessive personal data
and share personal information improperly with other applications of the group, such as Facebook and Instagram," they accused.
Among the data are:
access to the address book, telephone number, operations data (for example, if using Facebook Pay or WhatsApp Stores), information related to the service, information about interaction with companies when using use the service, information about the mobile device and the IP address;
in addition to other data that the user provides or is automatically collected by the application according to the "Information we collect" section of the Privacy Policy.
If approved, if the user does not accept the new Terms of Service, they will experience
limitations in the functionality
of the application and after a few weeks the application will stop operating and will lose all stored data.
In addition, the Secretariat stressed that "the conditions of the company are written in English, and present an unofficial translation, so
it would not be providing a valid contract
in the official language of our country."
"The
'extension of jurisdiction' is added
, by which the provider intends to assume the power to choose the competent court in case of conflict, a fact expressly prohibited by the Consumer Defense Law (No. 24,240), and the possibility that The company may end or modify the contract unilaterally according to its own criteria and without establishing any parameters, even to the point of transferring the obligation to consumers to notify themselves of these changes, taking the silence on their part as acceptance of the contractual modification, "he added.
The company led by Mark Zuckerberg, in the crosshairs.
Photo Getty Images
The changes that WhatsApp tries to impose
WhatsApp, the most used instant messaging application in the world, will not eliminate on May 15 - as it had proposed in January - accounts that do not accept its new privacy policy, based on the exchange of data with Facebook.
But it will send reminders to its users to review those changes and, after a while, it
will limit functions
if they are not accepted.
"We spent the last few months providing more information about our update to users around the world. During this time, most of the people who received the update accepted it, and
WhatsApp continues to grow
," a WhatsApp spokesperson told Télam.
However, he continued, "for those who have not yet had a chance to accept the update, their accounts will not be deleted or lose functionality on May 15. We will continue to offer reminders for these users within WhatsApp in the coming weeks."
"After several weeks, the reminder
will become persistent,
" he completed.
A "persistent reminder" means that the recipient will have "limited access to WhatsApp features"
until they accept the update
, WhatsApp explained.
Limited access means that users will
not be
able to "access your chat list, but they will be able to answer calls and video calls."
After a few weeks of limited functionality, those who have received the persistent reminder "will not be able to receive calls or notifications, and WhatsApp will stop sending messages and calls to their phones."
In short, if people do not accept the update "WhatsApp will not delete your account", but from now on they will have a limited service that will make this app almost meaningless in terms of its messaging application function.
DB
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