WhatsApp, Privacy and New Terms: What’s Changing – Corriere.it

Escape from Whatsapp? It takes more. But something happened: We discovered that after years of discussions, scandals or allegations like this about the use and misuse of our data, accepting the Terms of Service is no longer a formality.

Last week, tens of millions of people around the world downloaded messaging apps Signal (1.3 million in one day) e cable (25 million in three days) because the most famous – and used by two billion people – The WhatsApp He would amend his terms of use, and communicate them in a somewhat clumsy way.

Or use the words of an Italian privacy guarantee who has warned his European counterparts and does not rule out emergency interventions: Unclear and inappropriate To allow the expression of free and conscious will. An app spokesperson replied that this update provides additional transparency and does not affect privacy.

What changes then? From May 15th, to continue using Whatsapp, you must accept the new terms (the app will ask you for a notification by May 15th, if it hasn’t already done so). The deadline was set for February 8, then Whatsapp delayed it by three months – he says – to give people more time to review and understand the news, and to clarify incorrect information (read: To calm disagreements and fears from guarantors). In Italy and the rest of Europe, where the GDPR privacy regulation has been in place since 2018, requiring among other things the transparency required by the guarantor, the changes are minor: Facebook, which bought Whatsapp in 2014, will continue to appear the email address that users use to register with the app. Or the information on the device it is used from, and the inability to use this information to send advertisements or targeted content will continue, as explained by lawyer Ernesto Bellisario.

Main novelty related Companies Who use Whatsapp to communicate with customers, and they will have access to conversations for marketing purposes, or to those who sell them in Facebook stores and can contact them on WhatsApp. This is the sector you should pay attention toBecause Mark Zuckerberg’s intention is to allow us to use his family of apps – which also includes Instagram – for purchases and payments.

In the rest of the world and in the United States, where concerns about privacy are mixed with those about content management after the attack on Capitol Hill, it is mandatory instead to accept such data as a mobile phone number or Whatsapp address book. Can be used by Facebook for viewing Personalized ads. It could indeed happen, but since 2016 it has been optional.

Neither in Europe nor in the rest of the world, Facebook or Whatsapp can access the content of messages or calls as they are encrypted.

In 2016, Tommaso Valletti, professor of economics at Imperial College London, was chief economist at the European Antitrust Foundation that the following year fined Menlo Park for providing misleading information about the axis between the two apps: Even in Europe, Facebook will continue to build Statistical features For Whatsapp users (Anonymous, but based on our habits Ed) Using his data. It will use the information gathered outside of the European Union to train its algorithms, improve data crossing and profiling Europeans, he says. This explains the appeal of smaller standalone apps that take care to reduce data collection. However, Whatsapp is really hard to worry about.