The famous messaging app Whatsapp is changing its Privacy Policy

The famous messaging app WhatsApp is changing its privacy policy, originally effective from 8 February 2021, but due to strong criticism the parent company (Facebook) decided to postpone the implementation until 15 May 2021. The new policy allows Facebook to share and integrate data across all its services (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and so on). It also extends the access to metadata (data that describes other data), which can be used to implement more intrusive tracking. The policy will not be implemented in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), nor in Switzerland, as it violates the GDPR and the Swiss Data Protection Act: lack of transparency, forced consent of users and on. However, persons using WhatsApp in the EEA and Switzerland may wish to conduct its own audit to be sure that such sharing will not occur.