By Sizwe Gwala
Johannesburg – WhatsApp folks surely started this year with a bang and their public relations officials being inundated with the pressure to manage the resultant damage amid its latest data sharing stance.
In its recent communique, WhatsApp indicated that the decision to postpone the deadline for acceptance of the redefined terms of service and privacy policy to May 15 2021 is aimed at demystifying the confusion caused by mixed messages making the rounds and to afford users additional time to digest these changes.
The company further reassured its users that its end-to-end data encryption is still the best because WhatsApp is not privy to location data, private messages and calls.
Furthermore, they will afford businesses the option of using Facebook’s secure hosting services in managing WhatsApp chats with customers in addressing customer queries and in disseminating customer information.
In spite of reasons provided, one is of the impression that WhatsApp is getting cold feet seeing that some users didn’t hesitate to jump ship and made moves to rivals such as Telegram, which scooped 9.5-million users, and Signal securing 7.5-million users in a single week.
And the muscles flexed by most countries calling WhatsApp to account and utterly discard these changes surely added fire to an already burning furnace.
Although most countries have concerns with these changes and how they are handled, what really gives them ammunition to confidently oppose WhatsApp is their exemption of European customers whose data is said to be handled in line with the Irish Data Protection Commission laws.
In actual fact, the exclusion stems from a 2017 €110-million (R2-billion) fine imposed on Facebook by the European Commission after it had assured EU authorities back in 2014 that, if permitted to acquire WhatsApp, it will refrain from sharing users’ data with Facebook.
However, two years later, it did precisely that. Most countries did not hesitate to throw punches at WhatsApp.
Also included was South Africa’s information regulator, which cited POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act) violation as its basis. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology reminded WhatsApp that India is home to the largest user base and is one of the biggest markets for its services.
The integration of Facebook with its sister entities, WhatsApp and Instagram, will place them in an advantageous position in dominating the market.
However, such moves tend to threaten anti-trust proceedings considering the diversity of in-country information regulations.
In its defence against anti-trust break-ups, WhatsApp can cite its need for inter-operability in that related products and services are tied together at an operational level.
It is also pertinent it negotiates with affected countries and attempt, where feasible, to reach a common ground that will enable it to carry out its agenda while equally observing global and in-country regulations.
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