As widely expected, WhatsApp has updated its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy specifically for users in the European Union: the company did so based on the principles of Digital Markets Act he was born in Digital Services Actwhich regulate the so-called platforms gatekeeper. That is (simplifying) those potentially in a dominant position on the reference market.
The changes will be active for everyone starting Thursday 11 April: those who signed up for WhatsApp after February 15th have already accepted them upon activation of the app, while those who were already registered will probably receive an information notification in these days.
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youtube: Third party chats on WhatsApp
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Given the dictates of the DMA and the DSA, the innovations mainly go in the direction of one greater uniformity of the service throughout the European territory and of a greater opening. From the first point of view, the minimum age to use WhatsApp drops to 13 years in all EU countriesexactly like in the United States, while until now it was 16 years in some states (not Italy): “This update will ensure globally consistent minimum age requirements for WhatsApp,” the company explained.
As for the second point, that’s where it’s at the most important change: it has to do with the so-called interoperability and the possibility of receiving messages on WhatsApp from people who don’t use WhatsApp. To chat with other apps, in short. It will be possible to do it from April 11th, even if in reality it cannot be done right away, above all for 3 reasons:
why the opening request (to Telegram, Signal or others) must not be done by WhatsApp but by smaller apps; because from request to acceptance they can pass up to 3 months; because WhatsApp has established a very precise set of rules and procedures (these) that other apps must respect in order to be accepted, mainly in terms of security and encryption.
From what we understand, once the external app is made interoperable, there will be one specific menu item within the Settings dedicated to Third party chat, which can be activated or deactivated, and also a list of apps from which you can accept messages. List which is obviously empty at the moment.
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Greater security for European data
Among the other changes, important but perhaps with less impact on the end user, there are “changes to our data transfer mechanisms international”, because “for users in the European region we will be based on the new EU-US Data Privacy Framework”, which should better protect them from prying eyes.
Furthermore, there are changes ahead also for the Canals (What are?): “If you choose to use them, we will explain how the relevant guidelines apply, how to report content and appeal decisions, and how Channels are suggested.” Already today, this section of WhatsApp has its specific Privacy Policywhich among other things has recently been updated and therefore should be the one in force even after April 11th.
@capoema