South African authorities have said they are opposed to plans by the mobile messaging service WhatsApp to change its privacy conditions to share its data with its parent company Facebook, arguing that they violate South African law.
In January, WhatsApp gave its some two billion users a month to agree to new terms of use allowing it to share more data with Facebook, or else they would no longer be able to access their accounts.
Faced with the global outcry and the fears expressed by users regarding their personal data, WhatsApp has delayed by three months, to May 15, the deadline to accept them, time to try to reassure.
The South African Information Regulator (IR) said on Wednesday that the new terms of use that WhatsApp wants to impose on its users violate South Africa’s law on the protection of personal information.
“WhatsApp cannot, without the prior authorization of the IR (…) process the slightest contact details of its users for a purpose other than that for which the number was specifically provided when it was registered”, indicates the ‘IR in a press release.
He also said he was “very worried” that users in the European Union, protected by law and therefore exempted from the obligation to adhere to these new conditions, in fact benefit from better protection of their data. privacy as African users.
“Our legislation is very similar to that of the EU,” said IR boss Pansy Tlakula, “we don’t understand why Facebook has adopted this differentiation between Europe and Africa”.
The IR says it has invited Facebook to a meeting to discuss it and ensure that the new terms of use comply with South African law.
Under these new terms of service, merchants conversing on WhatApp with customers will be able to share data with Facebook, allowing the group to better target advertising.
WhatsApp defended these new rules, ensuring that they did not affect the confidentiality of messages exchanged with friends and family, but were above all intended to help companies to better communicate with their customers through the platform, in particular to allow them to sell their products directly there.
In mid-February, Facebook had temporarily blocked access to news content on the social network in Australia to show its opposition to a law about to be passed and aimed at forcing the giants of new technologies to pay the media for the resumption of their content.
An agreement was finally reached between the Australian government and Facebook and access to content restored.
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