WhatsApp will inform European users more clearly about policy changes

WhatsApp promises to inform European users more clearly about changes to its privacy policy from now on. The European Commission reported this on Monday. The EU was previously critical of the communication surrounding the changes that WhatsApp implemented in 2021.

“Following a dialogue with European consumer protection authorities and the European Commission, WhatsApp has committed to be more transparent about changes to its terms of service,” writes the European Commission on Monday. In the event of future policy changes, the company will clearly explain to users in the EU exactly what changes it is making and ‘how these will affect their rights’, says the Commission.

WhatsApp will also make it easier to reject policy changes and clearly explain when this means that they can no longer use the chat service. The choice to do so must also be ‘respected’ from now on and WhatsApp will not send recurring notifications about the policy changes after they have been rejected. It should also be possible to postpone viewing policy changes until a later date.

WhatsApp further declares to the European Commission that the data of WhatsApp users is not shared with third parties or other Meta companies for advertising purposes. The EU’s Consumer Protection Cooperation network will actively monitor WhatsApp’s compliance with the new commitments and “enforce compliance where necessary, including through the ability to impose fines.”

The EU has been in talks with WhatsApp for some time about communication regarding changes to its privacy policy. The European Commission already sent WhatsApp a letter at the beginning of last year asking users to explain its policy changes from 2021 more clearly to users. In that policy change, WhatsApp required the exchange of certain data with Meta subsidiary Facebook, although that does not apply to European users.