WhatsApp, the famous messaging service from Meta is still in the sights of European regulatory authorities. The European Commission, alongside the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC), reiterates its request to know more about how the application uses user data. The European authority gives Meta one month to respond, otherwise Mark Zuckerberg’s company will have to pay a fine.
The European Commission is not giving up
Following the eventful change in WhatsApp’s terms of use in 2021, the European Commission had already asked Meta, in January 2022, to detail the changes made. For the sake of transparency, the American company had explained to communicate the use made of the data with its users. It did this by sending notifications from inside the app. The Commission did not consider this answer sufficient and even considered it to be confusing for consumers.
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Hoping this time to obtain a convincing answer, the European authorities have renewed their demands. They threaten to fine Meta up to 4% of the tech giant’s annual revenue if it doesn’t respond within the time limit. Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice insists that messaging “ complies with European Union rules that protect consumers and fundamental rights “.
The purpose of this request is also to better understand WhatsApp’s business model. The European Commission and the CPC are questioning in particular the commercial use that is made of the data. They want to know if Meta derives revenue from this personal data and to ensure that users are informed about this.
WhatsApp, the pet peeve of Meta?
WhatsApp policy controversies are nothing new. In September 2021, the messaging service was fined 225 million euros for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Four breaches had been identified, the most serious being the sharing of personal data between WhatsApp and Facebook, according to the European Data Protection Board.
Meta just announced on May 26th an update to its privacy policy. The goal is to make it more readable for users and thus meet the expectations of regulatory authorities. Strangely, WhatsApp is not one of these changes…