The European Commission announced yesterday that the popular communication platform WhatsApp must explain some of its recent changes to its terms of service and privacy protection. Meta (formerly Facebook), to which the app belongs, must provide this explanation within a month to ensure compliance with EU consumer protection law. The European Commission has previously expressed concern that users lack clear informace about the consequences of your decision to accept or reject the new terms of use of the service.
“WhatsApp needs to ensure that users understand what they have consented to and how their personal data is being used, such as where that data is shared with business partners. WhatsApp must make a concrete commitment to us by the end of February on how it will address our concerns." European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said in a statement yesterday.
Last September, the company was fined a record 225 million euros (about 5,5 billion crowns) by the EU's main regulator, Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), for not being transparent about sharing personal data. Exactly one year ago, WhatsApp released a new version of its privacy policy. That allows the service to share more user data and details about interactions within it with its parent company Meta. Many users disagreed with this move.
In July, the European consumer protection authority BEUC sent a complaint to the European Commission, claiming that WhatsApp failed to explain clearly enough how the new policy differs from the old one. In connection with this, he pointed out that it is difficult for users to understand how the new changes will affect their privacy. EU consumer protection law mandates that companies handling personal data use clear and transparent contractual terms and commercial communications. According to the European Commission, WhatsApp's ambiguous approach to this issue therefore violates this law.
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