fbpx

The other Facebook issue – Should we still be using WhatsApp for business comms?

The other Facebook issue – Should we still be using WhatsApp for business comms?

1800 2000 Andy Munarriz

As the left and the right scramble to accuse Mark Zuckerberg of…

a) Providing the necessary tools for evil empires (little finger in corner of the mouth) to sway the democratic process

b) The reason for greater online censorship

Are we missing another data privacy time bomb?

1.5 billion of us worldwide use WhatsApp. It’s become a tool for both our personal lives and business, commonly used internally between colleagues and externally to communicate with customers. Are our businesses exposed as a result of us using WhatsApp, particularly with GDPR looming?

To follow GDPR best practices, one should keep personal and business mobile comms separate, by comms I mean calls and texts, because you need to ensure that you keep customer data private and out of your personal life. What if an employee leaves, they shouldn’t be able to take customers’ details with them – how can this be possible with WhatsApp and what are the implications of such widely adopted use for business?

This rather interesting article appeared a couple of days ago in Techradar and this sentence hit me like a sledgehammer: “That means, conversations on the platform should remain private, but information like whom you’re talking to, when and how often can still be harvested”.

In my opinion it could be too late for some as ‘they’ already know who you’ve been talking to and how often. With that in mind, I would recommend re-reading the Ts & Cs with your business specs specs on, and make a decision based on GDPR and your customers’ privacy in mind.

Andy,  Founder & CEO

 

Leave a Reply