WhatsApp privacy policy
We use the instant messaging service WhatsApp on our website. The service provider is the American company WhatsApp Inc., a subsidiary of Meta Platforms Inc. (until October 2021 Facebook Inc.). The company WhatsApp Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland is responsible for the European area.
What is WhatsApp?
We probably don't need to introduce WhatsApp to you in more detail. The likelihood that you yourself use this well-known messaging service on your smartphone is relatively high. For many years there have been voices that have criticized WhatsApp and its parent company Meta Platforms in relation to the handling of personal data. The main criticism in recent years has been related to the merging of WhatsApp user data with Facebook. Facebook then reacted in 2021 and adjusted the terms of use. Facebook announced that currently (as of 2021) no personal data from WhatsApp users is shared with Facebook.
Nevertheless, a lot of your personal data will of course be processed by WhatsApp, provided you use WhatsApp and have agreed to the data processing. In addition to your telephone number and chat messages, this also includes sent photos, videos and profile data. However, photos and videos should only be temporarily stored and all messages and phone calls are provided with end-to-end encryption. So they shouldn't be visible from Meta itself. In addition, information from your address book and other metadata are also stored on WhatsApp.
Why do we use WhatsApp?
We want to stay in touch with you and that works best via WhatsApp. On the one hand, because the service works perfectly, and on the other hand, because WhatsApp is still the most used instant messaging tool worldwide. The service is practical and enables easy and quick communication with you.
How secure is data transfer with WhatsApp?
WhatsApp also processes your data in the USA, among other places. We would like to point out that, according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfer to the USA. This can pose various risks to the lawfulness and security of data processing.
As a basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, especially in the USA) or for data transfer there, WhatsApp uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Article 46, Paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through these clauses, WhatsApp undertakes to comply with European data protection standards when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the resolution and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de
Information on data transfer to WhatsApp, which corresponds to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/business-data-transfer-addendum-20210927
We hope we have given you the most important information about the use and data processing by WhatsApp. You can find out more about the data processed through the use of WhatsApp in the Privacy Policy at https://www.whatsapp.com/privacy.
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Source: Created with AdSimple’s Privacy Generator