Just at the beginning of the year, the instant messaging application WhatsApp announced to all its users a change to its privacy policy and a period of one month to accept it or not. If consent was not given, the user would not be able to continue using the application. WhatsApp has more than 2 billion users worldwide.
It is certain that a good part of this audience accepted the new conditions of use and continued using the application without further concern. Some out of carelessness, total no longer comes from here and so much is the use they make and stop making of the personal or generic data they collect. Not only WhatsApp, but any other. These are those people who use the tools that are put in front of them if they seem useful, fun or essential. Others perhaps accepted with resignation. That is what matters. They know that the management of the data they do now, and those they announce that they will do, is in all probability far from being a treatment that guarantees total privacy, but of course. How can you ensure this in the digital age? And what won't others do too? So much so, they will try to convince themselves that they are not using it too dangerously and they will continue there because they need to be able to continue communicating with their personal and professional contacts.
And then there are the users who do read the terms of use and various privacy policies, it must be acknowledged that it is a complicated task to carry out very often, and they end up alerting the rest of what changes are in sight and what they imply. What happened with the new WhatsApp rules? Which asked for consent to share information collected in the app with the corporation's parent company, Facebook. Yes, the company that has the record of million-dollar fines for violations of people's privacy. As they say... what can go wrong? Let's remember. WhatsApp doesn't make you pay, but it's not free. It charges with information.
The big blow, for us, here, we have stopped from the start. The WhatsApp warning did not apply to users in the European Union, protected by the famous RGPD, General Data Protection Regulation. However, despite the exception, the user had to accept the consent. It is curious. The distrust is notable. So much so that the reaction of users has postponed the changes to the application. After a drop in its downloads and an unprecedented rise in the number of new users reported by its competitors, WhatsApp has decided to postpone the changes to its terms of use for three months. It does not mean that they are going to stop using WhatsApp, but it does express a desire to explore the possibility of communicating in new ways. It is a good exercise.
