Despite the new WhatsApp terms, European users are under no obligation to accept as many things as users in the rest of the world. Facebook is constrained by the GDPR and will give them more choices.
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As we told you about yesterday WhatsApp has been showing a notification for a few days to force users to agree to new terms. However, these conditions involve extensive sharing of your personal data between WhatsApp and Facebook. Which will seem almost anecdotal to you if you also use Facebook, but may be a little less so if you don’t.
We already said, from the start, that these new conditions risked jamming in Europe because of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Now it seems we were not wrong. While the firm, like everywhere else in the world, asks its customers to accept the new conditions of use, their scope is not the same on the old continent and in the United Kingdom.
WhatsApp confirms European user data will remain protected in accordance with GDPR
WhatsApp’s privacy manager also had to confirm on Twitter. “It has been incorrectly reported that the latest Terms of Service and privacy policy require users in the Europe region to agree to sharing data with Facebook for advertising purposes if they want to continue using the service. It’s wrong.”, explains Niamh Sweeney.
The only reason why Facebook is also forcing its European users to accept the new terms would actually be the galaxy of companies that can host their WhatsApp services on Facebook’s servers. This therefore only authorizes Facebook to use data obtained from exchanges with companies.
Also read: WhatsApp will soon allow the use of the web version without a smartphone
The case shows in any case once again the progress made in Europe in the protection of Internet users. We can imagine that the European Commission will not be content to take Facebook at its word: the actions of the firm resulting from the new conditions will be scrutinized. With heavy fines in the event of skidding …
