How the new WhatsApp terms and conditions will affect the countries of the EU

It all started in 2014, when Facebook bought WhatsApp for $ 19 billion. User concern was immediate, as it is an app that compiles the most data. And although at the beginning it had assured that there would be no changes in this regard, recently this changed when it published its new privacy conditions. The problem is that WhatsApp has indicated to its users that they have no choice but to accept them, if they want to continue using the app. How does it affect them? In which you will share the information collected with the Facebook platform.

What are the changes in this app?

The aforementioned conditions are effective until February 8 and when the application is opened a notice appears describing what will happen. This is, about the WhatsApp service, how they treat the data and its use, which is summarized in sharing the information with Facebook. There is considered personal data, which device is used for the app. But that’s not all, also transaction and service related information, interaction with others and IP address.

So, although both platforms are different services, the social network can access all the information collected and shared by WhatsApp. What they argue is that this way they will have more complete profiles and therefore, there will be an improvement in the services that Facebook offers. This giant has admitted that it shares information with others such as Apple, Blackberry or Amazon. Of course, not everything is invasive, since the social network will not read what is written in chats thanks to the encryption.

Do the new WhatsApp conditions affect the EU?

Not really. While these are momentous changes, they do not affect EU residents. And this is thanks to the application of the GDPR, a legislation related to data protection (2018). This legislation emphasizes the use that companies make of their users’ information. That means that the social network cannot share the data collected from the messaging service. This also includes the UK.

Now, what is the GDPR? This is the General Data Protection Law, which came into force on May 25, 2018. This means that from web pages to apps and social networks they reconfigured the way they collect data from their users (which they shared with third parties). There have been cases of user lawsuits against large technology companies for violating the privacy policy. GDPR requires that you do not restrict users to binary responses for acceptance of privacy policies. It has even been reported that they pressure people to accept them, and that is that there is a great return on the privacy of users.

On the other hand, it should be noted that WhatsApp has a sub-company in Ireland called WhatsApp Ireland Limited. It was created precisely focused on EU users, unlike WhatsApp LLC, which is used by the rest of the world. In any case, European users must still give their consent to continue using the application.