Also the Privacy Guarantor Authority has criticized the new policy of WhatsApp: the message to users deemed "unclear and intelligible".
The new privacy policy of WhatsApp that from February 8 will share more user data with Facebook has also attracted criticism from the Italian Privacy Guarantor. The authority has decided to bring the issue before the European Data Protection Board, defining WhatsApp's information "unclear and unintelligible".
For its part, WhatsApp makes it known that for European citizens the acceptance of the Privacy Policy does not involve changes to the processing of their personal data, because "it does not affect in any way the privacy of messages exchanged with friends or family members", nor even less on the data shared with Facebook, but "only provides additional transparency". Of a very different opinion, the Italian Privacy Guarantor, who has however decided to bring the issue before his European counterparts gathered in the EDPB body, precisely because he believes that the information is not clear enough to allow those who accept it an informed consent.
Privacy WhatsApp, the doubts of the Italian Guarantor
The authority for the protection of personal data in Italy is concerned about the Privacy Policy sent by WhatsApp to its users, even in Europe, and has stated it clearly in a note published on its official website. In essence, Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly reassured that this is just a way to provide further transparency and that nothing will change for users who use WhatsApp, not even in the sharing of their data with Facebook.
Not of the same opinion is the Privacy Guarantor, which precisely on the sharing of data with Facebook speaks of an informative "unclear and intelligible and must be carefully evaluated in the light of the discipline on privacy." For this reason, the Guarantor has turned to the EDPB, the body that brings together the European authorities for privacy, to request urgent action to protect the Italians, who could be led to accept the information without having the tools to express informed consent to the type of processing of their data.
Facebook and WhatsApp, the response to the Guarantor
Userserserspersons frightened by the change in privacy policy are fleeing to Telegram and Signal, while WhatsApp tries to stem the losses trying to reassure them. On the criticism raised by the Italian guarantor, the company countered in a statement: "We want to make it clear that the privacy policy update does not affect in any way the privacy of messages exchanged with friends or family and does not require Italian users to accept new ways of sharing data with Facebook. Instead, this update provides further transparency on how we collect and use data."
WhatsApp and Data Sharing with Facebook
According to some analysts, WhatsApp would be ready to share payment and transaction data with Facebook in order to increase advertising flow to support the new e-commerce section introduced last May on the social network. In particular, chats between merchants and customers on WhatsApp, could be stored in Facebook's servers to offer tailored promotions. A new data management that pushed many users to the great escape from WhatsApp, leading Telegram to register 25 million new users in just 3 days.