By Emma Nitzsche
Facebook’s WhatsApp faces complaints from consumer groups on Monday after purportedly pressuring users to accept controversial privacy policy changes.
The European Consumer Organization (BEUC) filed a complaint against the messaging app with eight other countries. The filing claimed WhatsApp infringed upon European consumer rights and included the European Commission and European network of consumer authorities.
The new privacy policy began on May 15 after a three-month delay to address consumer concerns. The update allegedly permitted data sharing with Facebook and allowed WhatsApp to view its users’ messages. The updates came after WhatsApp added new options to message businesses and link personal Facebook accounts.
According to the BEUC, WhatsApp pressured users to accept the new terms of use and privacy policy with “persistent, recurrent and intrusive notifications.” Despite the constant notifications to agree to the new policy, the BEUC claims that the nature of the updates wasn’t transparent or easily understood by their users.
“WhatsApp has been deliberately vague about [the privacy policy] and consumers would be exposed to far-reaching data processing without valid consent. That’s why we’re calling the authorities to take swift action against WhatsApp to ensure that it respects consumer rights,” said BEUC Director General Monique Goyens.
WhatsApp responded to the allegations by stating that its users are not required to accept the new changes. However, as mentioned by Goyens, the notifications are persistent, and the app will eventually degrade in usefulness if the user does not accept the privacy policy. Consequently, the negative attention garnered from the BEUC complaint drove many WhatsApp users to switch to other chat apps like Signal and Telegram.
In response, WhatsApp said the BEUC’s misunderstood the update’s purpose. To convince their users to return to the app, WhatsApp wants the opportunity to explain the nature of the privacy policy.
A spokesperson for Facebook said, “the update does not expand WhatsApp’s ability to share data with Facebook, and does not impact the privacy of your messages with friends or family, wherever they are in the world.” Additionally, WhatsApp would “welcome an opportunity to explain the update to the BEUC to clarify what it means for people.”
In its complaint, BEUC urged regulators to investigate WhatsApp’s security practices and to stop pressuring their users to blindly accepting the new policies. If the allegations prove true, WhatsApp would be in direct violation of EU consumer law. The social media app is currently trying to work with EU authorities to address privacy and consumer rights concerns.
