WhatsApp’s privacy policy update sparks global regulatory backlash amid user confusion

MLex Market Insight

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4.9 • 9 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2021

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

Users of the popular messaging service WhatsApp may have noticed a recent privacy-policy update from the Facebook-owned company. But how many of those users would have read and understood the 4,000-word document in full? Not many — something that is concerning regulators around the globe. Even though the company argues that the updates themselves are not significant, the way in which the changes have been communicated to users has fed into residual animosity towards Facebook over its 2014 acquisition of WhatsApp and mistrust about its handling of personal data. Meanwhile, some WhatsApp users are voting with their virtual feet, dumping the service in favor of rivals Signal and Telegram. Facebook vowed to boost its transparency about the changes and delayed the deadline to accept the policy update to May 15.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back. This is Emlex's weekly podcast covering the top regulatory news of the moment. My name is James Panicki, and it's great to see you again. Now if you're a user of the messaging
0:22.0	service WhatsApp you may have noticed a policy update from the Facebook
0:26.3	owned company recently. Chances are that you won't have read all 4,000 words
0:31.0	explaining what the update was about and this is something that regulators
0:36.0	around the world are worried about. As we've been reporting
0:39.5	over the past few weeks, it's not so much the content of the updated policy as much as the way in which
0:45.3	it has been communicated that is worrying authorities. And we should point out that in the EU in
0:51.5	particular, there is still bad blood over Facebook's 2014 acquisition of
0:56.7	WhatsApp and the promises that were made at the time and later broken. Our coverage of both the
1:03.5	European and the global dimensions of this story have been led by our London-based tech reporter
1:08.6	Jakob Kruper and in Brussels by our chief correspondent,
1:12.4	Matthew Newman, who covers data privacy, telecoms, cyber security, et cetera.
1:18.4	Both Matthew and Jacob are with me now.
1:21.4	Okay, so Matthew, how did WhatsApp announce the privacy policy change and what did it say?
1:28.3	Well, hello James.
1:30.3	It came out on January 4th and it was kind of a surprise for users around the world.
1:37.3	In the new year, they got a message from WhatsApp that there was a new policy change. And what happened is that you looked through this lengthy document,
1:48.2	which was 4,000 words,
1:49.8	and you couldn't really understand what the change was.
1:53.7	You'd have to really look through it with a fine-tooth comb
1:57.0	to see what policy change meant for the average user.
2:03.1	So WhatsApp was kind of confusing people,
	...

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