WhatsApp privacy update sparks complaint from EU consumer groups

European consumer groups filed a complaint against WhatsApp over a controversial privacy policy update on Monday, alleging the platform’s “intrusive” notifications pushing the update breached European Union commercial practices.

The European Consumer Organization (BEUC), an umbrella consumers group based in Brussels, along with eight of its members in various countries, filed the complaint against the platform, owned by Facebook, arguing it failed to explain in “plain and intelligible language the nature of the changes.”

“WhatsApp has been bombarding users for months with aggressive and persistent pop-up messages to force them to accept its new terms of use and privacy policy. They’ve been telling users that their access to their app will be cut off if they do not accept the new terms. Yet consumers don’t know what they’re actually accepting,” BEUC Director General Monique Goyens said in a statement.