The EU wants WhatsApp to tighten its privacy policy


The EU wants WhatsApp to tighten its privacy policy



Although 92% of Europeans consider it important to maintain the confidentiality of their mail, the current directive only applies to traditional operators



  The European Commission (EC) has proposed today a greater protection of privacy when using applications such as WhatsApp or Skype, which allow you to send messages or make voice calls, to equate it with the one that already applies to traditional telecommunications operators .

"We want to build trust in the digital single market that people expect," said the EU's vice president for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, who presented the initiative at a press conference.

  Up to 92% of Europeans consider it important to maintain the confidentiality of their mail or electronic messages, although the current privacy directive only applies to traditional operators, recalled the EC.

Therefore, the Commission proposes that the privacy regulations also cover new providers of electronic communications services, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Gmail, iMessage or Viber. Brussels advocates updating the current directive with a regulation that is directly applicable.

The protection will be guaranteed both for the content and for the metadata derived from the electronic communications, such as the time of a call or its location, which must be anonymous or deleted if requested by the user, unless that information is required for purposes such as billing.

New business opportunities

The EC believes that these proposals will also provide new business opportunities for companies, since if the user gives consent for the use of these contents or metadata, traditional operators will have "more possibilities to use them" and provide additional services.

There will also be simpler rules for "cookies" (programs that record Internet browsing), so that users can accept or reject more easily the tracking in case of risks to their privacy.

The proposal clarifies that consent will not be necessary for non-intrusive "cookies" and that they can improve the internet browsing experience (such as remembering shopping history on a website). Unwanted messages ('spam') via email, SMS or phone calls will be vetoed if the user does not give their consent.

They will be able to reject commercial calls by listing the number, which will be mandatory to show or that must have a prefix that identifies it as a marketing communication.

The new regulation aims to align the existing rules on personal data protection, dating from 2001, with the new stricter rules of the general regulation of 2016 on data protection, said the EC.

«Strict limits» to tracking

Next, the Parliament and the Council of the EU must adopt this proposal by May 25, 2018. The European consumer organization, BEUC, called for the new rules to oblige providers to apply strong privacy policies and impose "limits strict "to the crawl.

The association of European telecommunications operators, ETNO, urged that the new services be subject to the same rules as the other providers.

On the other hand, the EC presented a communication (non-legislative document) to eliminate "unjustified restrictions" or "legal uncertainties" that the free movement of data at the cross-border level faces.

"A regulation is necessary to guarantee the free flow of data, but for this we need public consultations," said Ansip, who defended "extending the scope of the data protection directive", which currently does not cover non-personal information generated at the industrial or by a machine.

According to the Commission, it also hinders the movement of personal data for reasons that are not based on the protection of personal information. The European employers, BusinessEurope, celebrated the initiative, given that the data "have become the bloodstream of the fourth industrial revolution" and a "crucial resource" for companies.

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