Today WhatsApp conditions of use change in its first change since 2021. The new conditions are now those that govern the use of the application for all users, new and old. Until today, they only applied to those who had registered after February 16.
This time it is a technical change in which WhatsApp has had to prepare the legal framework for Prepare to open to third-party applicationsthe biggest change in the history of WhatsApp that will still take a few more months to complete.
This is how the conditions of use of WhatsApp change
The new terms of use are hereso from now on the use of WhatsApp for users within the European Union is based on the changes introduced on February 16 in the WhatsApp Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy.
The most important change is that The minimum age to use the application drops again to 13 years after it increased, in Europe, to 16 years in 2018.
In addition, the conditions have been reorganized to separate some of the conditions in other documents, such as the channel terms of service and message standards. As a consequence, the new terms have about 200 words less than the previous ones.
Conditions have also had to accommodate the changes forced by Europe in terms of interoperabilitysomething that is reflected in the fact that the application bases its international data transfer mechanisms on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and on the privacy policy that applies to non-users (who communicate with WhatsApp users from other applications). These are all the changes:
- More information is added about the guidelines and policies we apply that describe what is and is not allowed on WhatsApp.
- Details are included about the new EU requirements to be able to send WhatsApp messages to supported third-party applications.
- It explains how channel rules apply, how to report content and appeal decisions, and how we recommend channels.
- The international data transfer mechanisms in the European Region are based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. USA
- Information on data processing is included for those who choose to activate interoperability with third-party applications.
- Information on processing in accordance with DSA obligations is included.
- The minimum age to use WhatsApp in the European Region will be changed from 16 to 13 years old.
It is the legal framework for interoperability
Beyond rearranging the terms of use applicable to Europe, the change in policies responds to the need to prepare WhatsApp for opening to other messaging applications. WhatsApp interoperability is now technically ready since last March 6when the European Commission’s obligations came into force when WhatsApp was called a gatekeeper, but legal support was still lacking.
The conditions are adapted taking into account that in the future there will be people who communicate with WhatsApp users without using WhatsApp, from external applications such as Signal. These non-users will be governed by a new WhatsApp privacy policy for non-users which establishes, among other things, what data is collected during the use of the service.
The data that is collected at talk from WhatsApp with users of other apps They are, as WhatsApp states, “limited information so that you can successfully send and receive messages, mainly whether your messages are delivered correctly, information about the type of message (text or multimedia files) and when it was sent.”
WhatsApp’s new terms of use and privacy policy come into effect today, April 11, for all users, although interoperability will still take a while to arrive since third-party applications must still adapt to take advantage of it. As a WhatsApp user, you have the power to accept these types of messages from external users or not.
Why haven’t I had to accept anything?
If the day has already arrived, why hasn’t WhatsApp asked you at any time if you accept the new conditions of use? The answer is easy: since they are “minor” changes that do not radically change the way you use the application or the data collection, it is understood that you accept the changes by continuing to use the application.
That is, WhatsApp is not going to ask you to accept or not the new terms of use, as happened a few years ago with the last change. This is indicated on its support web page: “If you continue using WhatsApp after April 11, 2024, you accept these updates to our Terms of Service.”
And if you don’t accept them, what happens?
If for whatever reason you do not want to accept these new conditions of use Your only alternative is to stop using WhatsApp. This is because simply continuing to use the application will assume that you have accepted the new terms of use. There is therefore no option to continue using WhatsApp without doing so.
If you want to see What terms of use and privacy policy apply to your accountthe easiest way to do it is to go to the section Aid of your settings and tap Conditions and Privacy Policy, that opens the website that applies to your case, whether the general conditions or those of Europe.
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