America is leading the international rebellion against the latest WhatsApp update, available since May 15 and in whose terms and conditions it is specified that the application will share data with Facebook, its parent company. Chile opened a formal investigation at the end of that month to determine whether the new policy of the world's most used instant messaging service conflicts with the privacy of citizens. It is the third American country to make a decision of this type: Brazil and Argentina launched similar measures days before the date that WhatsApp set for its update.
The National Economic Prosecutor's Office (FNE) of Chile, a body that has among its powers to ensure consumer protection, informed WhatsApp of the opening of an investigation on May 27, as EL PAÍS has learned. The FNE says that its decision was influenced by a complaint filed by an individual, according to which "there would be various problems in relation to the terms of use and privacy policy of WhatsApp (...), mainly related to the use of data and metadata collected by said application, which would be consolidated by the changes whose implementation was announced on May 15, 2021 ”. The letter also includes seven other "decisions and cases" involving WhatsApp, including those opened by its neighboring countries, Brazil and Argentina.and concludes that it considers "pertinent to carry out an investigation" to see if the changes proposed by the company collide with the country's legislation.
The particular complaint mentioned in the brief was filed by the Chilean association Derechos Digitales, whose representatives met with the FNE at the beginning of May to give it background information. "It seems to us that the new update could do a lot of damage to the competition", underlines by telephone María Paz Canales, executive director of the aforementioned non-profit organization. One of the arguments put forward by Canales and his colleagues is that the high penetration of WhatsApp in Chile, which exceeds 90%, makes it very difficult for users who do not agree with the transfer of their data to Facebook to choose another application instant messaging without giving up being in communication with your friends or clients. “When everyone is already on a platform, the opportunity cost of exiting it is higher,especially for businesses ”, emphasizes the lawyer.
International reply
The change in conditions imposed by the application implies a new policy on the data that WhatsApp collects about users and their treatment.
In essence, the transfer of information between the instant messaging application and Facebook, the company that acquired it in 2014, is made official. The CEO of the technology giant, Mark Zuckerberg, assured then that the independence of WhatsApp data was guaranteed.
In 2016, data began to be shared with Facebook, but then the option was given to consent to this transfer or not.
This time it will not be like that: those who do not agree with the new data policy of the application could not continue using it, at least not with the same benefits as the rest.
Or at least that's what was said at the beginning.
The criticism of experts and associations and especially the direct action of several key countries for its business led WhatsApp to postpone some of its changes. "Given the recent discussion with various authorities and privacy experts, we want to make it clear that we currently have no plans to limit the functionality of WhatsApp to those who have not yet accepted the update," said a company spokesperson on May 31.
Facebook will now have a huge additional source of data, that of the 2 billion WhatsApp users, to enrich and complement what it already had. This will help you improve the personalization of the ads you display on your platforms, including Instagram. Facebook's revenue comes almost exclusively from advertising and no ads are shown on WhatsApp; With the new update, the group will be able to take advantage of the data collected by the instant messaging service on its other social networks.
It is not the first time that WhatsApp backs down.
The update that was released on May 15 was initially proposed for February of this year, but the company decided to delay it, seeing that it raised suspicions in some countries.
After seeing that the same thing has happened this time, the company has decided to continue providing provisionally all the usual services to those who do not accept the new terms, while periodically reminding themselves that there is a pending update.
The rebellion of the South
Among the most belligerent countries against WhatsApp's new data policy are the two with the most users: India and Brazil, with more than 400 and 120 million respectively. New Delhi, which has taken a particularly tough line against big tech in recent years, was among the first to oppose it. Brasilia also did not hesitate to stop the transfer of data between Facebook, the instant messaging service, whose penetration ranges between 80% and 90% and which has its payment sending system, WhatsApp Pay, operating.
Turkey's competition authority was one of the first to freeze the WhatsApp update and open an investigation into it. The president of the republic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and several members of his government said publicly that they were abandoning WhatsApp. Downloads from other instant messaging systems, such as Telegram, Signal or the Turkish Bip, have skyrocketed so far this year in the country, according to AP. The South African regulator, for its part, also asked the company for explanations. In Argentina, the Ministry of Internal Commerce suspended the entry into force of the update on May 17, two days after its launch, while investigating whether it clashes with privacy laws.
The United States has not officially ruled on the matter, although WhatsApp does not have a very relevant presence in that country (it is strong among the immigrant population).
In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation prevents the transfer of data with Facebook.
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