WhatsApp Privacy Policy Tweaked in Europe After Record Fine (bbc.com) 9
WhatsApp is rewriting its privacy policy as a result of a huge data protection fine earlier this year. From a report: Following an investigation, the Irish data protection watchdog issued a $253.29m fine -- the second-largest in history over GDPR -- and ordered WhatsApp to change its policies. WhatsApp is appealing against the fine, but is amending its policy documents in Europe and the UK to comply. However, it insists that nothing about its actual service is changing. Instead, the tweaks are designed to "add additional detail around our existing practices", and will only appear in the European version of the privacy policy, which is already different from the version that applies in the rest of the world. "There are no changes to our processes or contractual agreements with users, and users will not be required to agree to anything or to take any action in order to continue using WhatsApp," the company said, announcing the change. The new policy takes effect immediately.
In January, WhatsApp users complained about an update to the company's terms that many believed would result in data being shared with parent company Facebook, which is now called Meta. Many thought refusing to agree to the new terms and conditions would result in their accounts being blocked. In reality, very little had changed. However, WhatsApp was forced to delay its changes and spend months fighting the public perception to the contrary. During the confusion, millions of users downloaded WhatsApp competitors such as Signal.
In January, WhatsApp users complained about an update to the company's terms that many believed would result in data being shared with parent company Facebook, which is now called Meta. Many thought refusing to agree to the new terms and conditions would result in their accounts being blocked. In reality, very little had changed. However, WhatsApp was forced to delay its changes and spend months fighting the public perception to the contrary. During the confusion, millions of users downloaded WhatsApp competitors such as Signal.
Diff? (Score:2)
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Instead of sharing data with Facebook, they're share it with Meta instead.
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They added a note to the effect that they are not in fact licensed proctologists, and that may not be a finger...
Where are acceptable policies listed? (Score:2)
Where are acceptable policies listed? I really dont want any double-plus-ungood policies in my company.
Where do I signup to get the cash reward for changing my user-friendly policies such as no-log IP erased, no-name-required, pay-with-crypto to government friendly ones such as ID verified, background checks, extra logging stored on my harddisks for decades with datacenters kept powered (non-green) just to hold peoples data for the gov.
Where are these policies? Or will they just know one when they see it?
Good! (Score:3)
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I took a look at LG's privacy policy and found one person, from 2014, who confirmed your statement. But then I thought, if I don't agree to their policies, you mean I get a perfectly good tv without being harassed by all the crap I wouldn't use anyway?
Sounds like a good deal. With tvs, and only tvs, becoming extremely difficult to come by, not agreeing to privacy policies might be the best thing. Until companies require you to accept the policies to even use what you purchased, at which point the lawsuits
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I took a look at LG's privacy policy and found one person, from 2014, who confirmed your statement. But then I thought, if I don't agree to their policies, you mean I get a perfectly good tv without being harassed by all the crap I wouldn't use anyway?
Sounds like a good deal. With tvs, and only tvs, becoming extremely difficult to come by, not agreeing to privacy policies might be the best thing. Until companies require you to accept the policies to even use what you purchased, at which point the lawsuits will fly.
I suspect until the EU rules on this, you are stuck sharing your data. I say the EU, since they generally tend to be the region that rules first on consumer oriented policies.
BTW I would be curious to see the reaction of sales person if you ask to the the privacy policy before buying the TV, or returning the TV because you didn't like the privacy policy.
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An LG TV that I made the mistake of upgrading to the latest firmware has become basically useless for watching TV. If I don't give it an internet connection, it has visual stutters every few seconds after a few hours of watching TV (not necessarily consecutively). The problems only go away if I allow the LG TV to go online (even if I explicitly refuse all data collection permissions), and the stutters return after a while if I sever the internet connection, which means accepting or denying data collection d
If you still care what Whatsapp does, you're old (Score:1)
Use something else already, laggard.