WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging app, came under fire on Wednesday and Thursday for asking its 2 billion users to agree to new terms of service, which allow it to share more data with its parent company Facebook.
Users who decline will no longer be able to access their accounts from February 8.
On Twitter, many users were alarmed Thursday that they had given their consent without having read the changes in detail.
The group intends to monetize its platform by allowing advertisers to contact their customers via WhatsApp, or even sell their products directly in the application, as is already the case in India.
“Updating privacy policies is common in the industry and we are providing users with all the information necessary to verify the changes that will take effect on February 8,” a spokesperson for the group said in a statement to AFP.
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According to the company, data that can be shared between WhatsApp and the Facebook app ecosystem (including Instagram and Messenger) includes contacts and profile information, except message content.
But the new conditions differ between the European Union and the rest of the world. In the case of the EU and the UK, they will only be used to expand the functionality offered to WhatsApp Business accounts, the company told AFP.
“WhatsApp does not share the data of its users in Europe with Facebook so that Facebook uses this data to improve its products or advertisements,” said a spokesperson for the platform.
Asked by AFP, the National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms, Cnil, a French Internet regulation, recalled that since 2017 an investigation had been opened on the consequences of the takeover of WhatsApp by Facebook for 22 billion dollars in 2014, including data transfer conditions.
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