WhatsApp faces EU complaint for 'foisting' updated privacy policy on users
Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp messaging
app faces a European complaint after its allegedly “aggressive” roll out of new
terms and services sparked outrage among consumer-rights campaigners.
The updated policy, in effect since May, remains opaque and makes
it impossible for users to get a clear understanding of what consequences
WhatsApp’s changes entail for their privacy, European consumer association BEUC
said in a statement on Monday.
“WhatsApp has
been bombarding users for months with aggressive and persistent pop-up messages
to force them to accept its new terms of use and privacy policy,” Monique
Goyens, director general of BEUC, said in the statement. “They’ve been telling
users that their access to their app will be cut off if they do not accept the
new terms” and remained “deliberately vague” about data processing.
WhatsApp announced
the policy changes in January, but was forced to delay its introduction until
May, because of confusion and user backlash over what data the messaging
service collects and how it shares that information with parent Facebook.
Together with eight of its members, Brussels-based BEUC said it
submitted a complaint with the European Commission and the European network of
consumer authorities.
The filing urges regulators to open an investigation into
WhatsApp’s practices and demand that the terms and services users agreed to
“via the contentious practices” shouldn’t be binding on them.
Spokespeople for Facebook and WhatsApp didn’t immediately comment.
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