Quick Thoughts – Information Security – WhatsApp Data Sharing 2021

There are lots of social media commentary this week around the changes in the WhatsApp privacy policy.

First of all yes this privacy policy is scary and moves WhatsApp ever closer to Facebook in terms of their approach to who has the right to user data and what its worth to the business. However should you worry about it as a U.K or EU citizen? No. And the reason for that is simple, WhatsApp has to adhere to the guidance as laid out in the articles which form GDPR, therefore they cannot use the data or share this data with it’s parent company Facebook for the purposes of remarketing as it would be outside the fair use of the data.

 

That said, Facebook are looking to move Facebook access for UK users away from their Facebook Ireland entity to being governed by Facebook Inc. This would therefore change their obligations as your account would sit outside of the GDPR region. Furthermore, following the U.K. leaving the EU they would be able to do this and therefore WhatsApp would fall under the privacy policy of the U.S.

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So in short, don’t panic right now. There is no need to leave WhatsApp or not accept the terms in February. However, when Facebook moves the U.K. to be governed and controlled by the U.S., then if you want your data from being used for a number of questionable activities you need to leave and delete your Facebook account and do the same for WhatsApp.

I hope this quick thought helped you demystify the current situation.

If you want to talk to me about information security and data protection then please call 01235 433900 or you can reach out to me via DM or at [email protected].

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