The WhatsApp messaging service on Thursday announced its updated terms to its nearly two million users, enabling the app to share further user data with its parent company Facebook.
The terms include facilitating e-commerce via WhatsApp as Facebook tries to earn the messaging service.
The new conditions allow WhatsApp Business users to use the updated features in the EU and the UK, a company spokesperson told AFP.
WhatsApp has asked its users to agree to the new terms and conditions, or no longer have access to the app.
Users angry at new terms
Advocates for privacy have sharply criticized the update, warning that the new provisions are not legal.
Arthur Messaud, a lawyer for La Quadrature du Net, an association that defends Internet users, told the AFP news agency that the update was forcing users to illegally agree to the disconnection of their data if they wanted to continue using the messaging service.
“If the only way to refuse (the modification) is to stop WhatsApp, the permission is forced because the use of personal data is illegal,” he said.
The update has sparked outrage among some WhatsApp users, who are considering switching to other instant messaging services. Tesla chief and billionaire Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to urge people to switch to programs like Signal.
The messaging app Signal said within hours of the WhatsApp announcement that it had too many new users.
Signal was developed by data privacy activists to implement a sealed sender policy, which hides the metadata of the messages, which can usually reveal the sender, recipient and timing of messages.
Pressure from regulators
WhatsApp used to be considered a secure instant messaging software, thanks to its end-to-end encryption.
European Union politicians used the app during the Brexit negotiations, which gave rise to the term ‘WhatsApp diplomacy’. The European Commission later changed course, urging its employees to switch to Signal, citing privacy issues.
In May 2020, German data privacy commissioner Ulrich Kelber advised against using WhatsApp in federal ministries and institutions.
WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook has been on a collision course with regulators in the United States and the EU for years, with the situation looming at the end of 2020.
In December, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 48 states filed a lawsuit against Facebook in December for violating competition laws, accusing the social media of market monopoly.
The EU has also fined Facebook € 110 million (then $ 120 million) for misleading its users about the company’s power to link accounts between its other services following its controversial takeover of WhatsApp.
Facebook took over WhatsApp in 2014, two years after they bought the photo service Instagram.