The eternal fight between the European Union and WhatsApp continues to generate threats and -for the moment- no serious consequences. However, this could change fulfillment of the ultimatum just given by the supranational body to the company owned by Meta.
The EU has given WhatsApp a month to explain itself
Although it was Mark Zuckerberg who a few months ago “threatened” to leave Europe if community laws did not stop “suffocating” its interests and, among them, those of its instant messaging application (something that the company denied or, rather, softened days later), now it is the European Union -along with the Cooperation Network for Consumer Protection – the one that has set a deadline for the company.
The EU has given a maximum period of one month to the company owned by Mark Zuckerberg to clarify what data it collects from users on the European continent and what do you do with them.
The move comes now, more than a year after the company changed its Terms of Use and forced users to accept that new policy – which expressly allows WhatsApp user data to be shared with other Meta companies. to continue using the application.
The EU wants to know what Meta plans to do with this data: which data will it collect regarding the use of WhatsApp, with which other companies in its conglomerate will it be shared and for what purpose. According to the supranational body, there are indications that the way in which user data is protected on the European continent is violated, since the GDPR does not allow them to leave Europe.
However, if WhatsApp ends up sharing usage data with other companies in the group, possibly all that information related to European users could end up on the company’s servers located in the United States. This is what the European Union has asked WhatsApp to expressly clarify and has given it a month’s time.
We’ll see what answer offers WhatsApp to be able to continue operating in Europe normally, respecting the GDPR, but also being able to monetize the service. Zuckerberg already warned that, if they were unable to earn money because the company was legally surrounded, WhatsApp was considering leaving Europe.
Could this happen? It does not seem likely, but in the last case, if WhatsApp’s explanations do not convince the EU and it does not allow it to handle user data as it wishes, such a drastic decision could come from the United States.
