Tag: Snapchat

Data protection risks with regard to WhatsApp and Snapchat on business phones

6. June 2018

The use of the chat services WhatsApp and Snapchat on smartphones used for business purposes will in future be forbidden for employees of the automotive supplier Continental: For data protection reasons, the employer prohibits its employees from downloading the apps. This ban affects approximately 36,000 mobile phones worldwide.

The ban is based on the fact that social media services access users’ address books and thus personal (and possibly confidential) data. The messenger apps do not restrict access to personal data in their settings, so Continental consequently decided to ban the apps from service mobile phones to protect business partners and its own employees.

Under the current terms of use, users of WhatsApp agree to provide contact information “in accordance with applicable laws”. WhatsApp hereby shifts its data protection responsibility to its users, who in fact confirm that they have obtained a corresponding declaration of consent for data processing from every person in their address book. The social media service will be aware that this is practically impossible to guarantee.

In order to ensure an adequate level of data protection, the latter would therefore be obliged to design the default settings to conform to data protection requirements. Such a change could also have a positive effect on the company itself, considering that this would remove the breeding ground for the prohibition. WhatsApp could then be used on countless other smartphones.

Category: GDPR · General Data Protection Regulation
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“If you think instant messaging services are private, you are in for a big surprise …

24. October 2016

… The reality is that our communications are under constant threat from cybercriminals and spying by state authorities. Young people, the most prolific sharers of personal details and photos over apps like Snapchat, are especially at risk,” concluded Sherif Elsayed-Ali, the head of Amnesty International’s Technology and Human Rights Team, after ranking 11 of the most popular messaging apps in a Message Privacy Ranking.

In this ranking, both Snapchat and Skype received some of the lowest scores. Snapchat only got 26 out of 100 on the organization’s scale, whereas Skype received 40 out of 100. This is due to the fact that end-to-end encryption is not used, although it is highly recommendet to do so, according to Amnesty.

The report explaines that “The apps were marked on their use of encryption and privacy safeguards, as well as how well they advised their users of the app’s security, and whether they released details of government requests for user data.” Furthermore, Sherif Elsayed-Ali stated that “It is up to tech firms to respond to well-known threats to their users’ privacy and freedom of expression, yet many companies are falling at the first hurdle by failing to provide an adequate level of encryption”.

Therefore, it is to note that although they are the world-leading messaging applications, Skype and Snapchat are among the least secure on the market, according to Amnesty.

Category: Encryption · end-to-end encryption
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