The European network of consumer agencies and European Union data protection authorities have been encouraged to work together to address concerns about WhatsApp’s privacy and consumer rights.
WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, was hit with a torrent of complaints from the European Consumer Organization and others on Monday over a privacy policy update that sparked a global outcry and forced some users to migrate to competitor apps Telegram and Signal.
WhatsApp announced a privacy policy in January that permits it to share some data with Facebook and other group companies.
WhatsApp said that the changes will allow users to communicate with businesses while having no impact on personal conversations.
The European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) and eight of its members slammed the changes, filing complaints with the European Commission and the European network of consumer authorities, alleging that WhatsApp was forcing users to accept its new policies.
The groups said in a joint statement “The content of these notifications, their nature, timing and recurrence put an undue pressure on users and impair their freedom of choice. As such, they are a breach of the EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices,”
They said “WhatsApp has failed to explain in plain and intelligible language the nature of the changes… This ambiguity amounts to a breach of EU consumer law which obliges companies to use clear and transparent contract terms and commercial communications,”
The groups urged the European network of consumer authorities and the EU data protection authorities to collaborate in order to resolve these privacy and consumer rights concerns.