According to the providers of the app, Whatsapp users will not have any consequences for the time being if they do not agree to the new data protection provisions of the chat service. There are currently no plans to restrict the range of functions for the people concerned, a spokesman for the company belonging to Facebook told the technology blogs The Next Web and The Verge. Whatsapp wants to clarify this after consulting with authorities and experts. Instead, these users will be reminded of the update “from time to time”.
The service had put the new data protection regulations into effect about two weeks ago. It said that users who do not agree to the update threaten to gradually lose important functions after a few weeks with warnings. “It is currently not planned to make these reminders permanent or to limit the functionality of the app,” it now says in the Whatsapp questions and answers about the new regulations.
To previous announcements for example, users should lose access to their chat list over time. First of all, you should still be able to accept incoming audio and video calls and use the notifications to answer chat messages. A few more weeks later, Whatsapp would then neither send calls nor messages to their smartphones, was the now apparently outdated statement of the company.
Whatsapp had always emphasized that the update did not involve any additional data transfer to Facebook. The messenger wants to earn money with its corporate customers. He is therefore revising the terms of use and giving companies the opportunity to communicate directly with users. The service also changes some passages of the privacy policy to make it clearer how it manages information. But the two biggest fears do not apply: On the one hand, messages remain end-to-end encrypted, WhatsApp can never see the content. On the other hand, metadata is shared with the parent company so that Facebook can find out who opens the app and when and with whom. In the EU, however, the General Data Protection Regulation prevents this information from being used for advertising purposes.
The Hamburg data protection advocate Johannes Caspar stepped in anyway and, as a precaution, issued an order in mid-May that prohibited Facebook from processing WhatsApp data from German users. It is valid for three months because the Irish data protection authority is responsible for Facebook in Europe. Whatsapp replied that the arrangement was based “on a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose and consequences of the update”. The developers had already rejected the announcement in January that more data would be shared with the mother. However, the introduction of the new provisions was postponed by more than three months to May 15 following criticism and a migration of users.
Whatsapp communicated poorly
One reason for this: According to industry experts, the world’s largest communications service provider communicated badly. The original notice in the app was poor, nowhere were the changes clearly explained. So far, information has been spread over several documents, which were available in different versions for the EU and the rest of the world and which sometimes contradicted each other.
Because of the discussion, many people ask themselves about alternatives. In a survey, four out of ten respondents in Germany stated that they had already tried a new service. The most popular alternative option, however, was the messenger from the parent company Facebook – which is guaranteed to use the usage data for advertising purposes. According to experts, anyone who has not had a problem with WhatsApp so far does not have to switch, after all, hardly anything changes. This is not necessarily a cause for concern. Whether with old or new terms of use: data ends up on Facebook.
The most popular WhatsApp alternative that has nothing to do with Facebook is called Telegram – and by default it does not protect messages with end-to-end encryption. In addition, the operators apparently understand freedom of expression to include Nazis, criminals and violent conspirators may use the service unhindered.
With Signal and Threema, however, there are secure and privacy-friendly messengers that have also benefited from the WhatsApp confusion. Where you used to have to talk to yourself or only meet a few convicts, you can now find many people on your contact list.