• Home
  • Apps
  • Apps News
  • WhatsApp Agrees to Be More Transparent Over Privacy Policy Changes, Says EU

WhatsApp Agrees to Be More Transparent Over Privacy Policy Changes, Says EU

The European Consumer Organisation told WhatsApp last year that it had not clarified the changes in plain and intelligible language.

WhatsApp Agrees to Be More Transparent Over Privacy Policy Changes, Says EU

Photo Credit: Reuters

Meta was fined last month by Ireland's Data Privacy Commissioner (DPC)

Highlights
  • EU members' national regulators can sanction companies for breaches
  • WhatsApp confirmed users' personal data is not shared with third parties
  • WhatsApp made changes to its privacy policy in 2021
Advertisement

Meta Platforms' WhatsApp has agreed to be more transparent about changes to its privacy policy introduced in 2021, the European Commission said on Monday, following complaints from consumer bodies across Europe.

The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and the European Network of consumer authorities told WhatsApp last year that it had not clarified the changes in plain and intelligible language, violating the bloc's laws.

EU members' national regulators can sanction companies for breaches.

WhatsApp has now agreed to explain changes to EU users' contracts and how these could affect their rights, and has agreed to display prominently the possibility for users to accept or reject the changes and ensure that users can easily close pop-up notifications on updates.

The company also confirmed that users' personal data is not shared with third parties or other Meta companies, including Facebook, for advertising purposes.

"Consumers have a right to understand what they agree to and what that choice entails concretely, so that they can decide whether they want to continue using the platform," Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said.

Last month, Ireland's Data Privacy Commissioner (DPC), EU's lead privacy regulator, said that Meta must reassess the legal basis on how Facebook and Instagram use personal data to target advertising in the European Union and fined the social media giant EUR 390 million (roughly Rs. 3,500 crore) for the breaches.

The DPC, which is the lead privacy regulator for many of the world's largest technology companies within the EU, directed Meta to bring its data processing operations into compliance within three months.

The penalties brought the total fines levied against Meta to date by the Irish regulator to EUR 1.3 billion (roughly Rs. 11,500 crore). It currently has 11 other inquiries open into Meta services.

The DPC said that as part of its decision, the EU's privacy watchdog had purported to direct the Irish regulator to conduct a fresh investigation that would span all of Facebook and Instagram's data processing operations.

© Thomson Reuters 2023


The OnePlus 11 5G was launched at the company's Cloud 11 launch event which also saw the debut of several other devices. We discuss this new handset and all of OnePlus' new hardware on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.
Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Meta, WhatsApp, EU, Privacy
Amazon '5th Gear' 5G Store With Exchange Discounts, No Cost EMIs, Free Prime Membership Announced in India
Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat LinkedIn Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News

Advertisement

Follow Us
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »