European consumer groups on Monday filed a complaint with the European Commission and the European network of consumer authorities against WhatsApp for what it called “multiple breaches of EU consumer rights.”
BEUC – The European Consumer Organization, together with eight of its members against the Facebook-owned platform.
For several months now, WhatsApp has been pressuring its users to accept its new terms of use and privacy policy. According to the groups, these terms are neither transparent nor comprehensible for users.
WhatsApp’s conduct is aggravated by the fact that it keeps pushing users to accept a privacy policy which is currently under scrutiny by the European Data Protection Authorities for breaches of EU data protection law, the groups stated.
“WhatsApp has been bombarding users for months with aggressive and persistent pop-up messages to force them to accept its new terms of use and privacy policy, said Monique Goyens, BEUC Director General.
They’ve been telling users that their access to their app will be cut off if they do not accept the new terms. Yet consumers don’t know what they’re actually accepting. WhatsApp has been deliberately vague about this and consumers would be exposed to far reaching data processing without valid consent,” she said.
WhatsApp introduced a privacy policy earlier this year that allows the platform to share some of its data with Facebook and third parties, and lets users talk to businesses on the platform.
