Authorities use WhatsApp in corona crisis: data protection staff feels angry

Berlin government criticized

May 6, 2020 at 5:41 pm Reading time: Two minutes

In the coronal crisis, the Berlin government relied on WhatsApp for communication. Data protection experts are angry, they worry that even after the crisis, data protection standards will tend to flatten.

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WhatsApp is widely used, but data protection experts have criticized Messenger many times in the p ast, which may be mainly due to WhatsApp belongs to Facebook.

For data protection reasons, the IT security experts of the Berlin government have actually explicitly banned the use of Messenger, but may use WhatsApp. As Tagesspiegel reported, data protection officer Maja Smoltczyk is now concerned about unnecessarily weakening previously known data protection rules.

For example, health senator Dilek Kalayci [SPD] publicly admitted to using WhatsApp to communicate with the president of the medical association during crisis management, which caused the anger of experts.

WhatsApp becomes an emergency solution for schools

Smolchik also criticized the authorities and other agencies for their lack of preparation. Many people will be forced to digitize because of the crisis, but the solution is not sufficient. Among other things, many teachers in the school initially used WhatsApp as a means of communication to pass the teaching materials to students. Due to the shortage of alternative solutions, WhatsApp is obvious to most students and teachers and proves that it is a simple emergency solution. Finally, you can quickly create a group chat.

Corona crisis threatens data protection?

However, according to Maja Smoltczyk, using these services in this way "will be insecure and illegal under data protection laws." The authorities and educational institutions such as schools process very sensitive personal data. In theory, the crisis may lead to the softening of data protection measures.

Most people do n’t know what options

There are many alternatives on the market, and at least this negative data protection issue has not been noticed. Among other things, Microsoft Teams should be called video conferencing software here. Other messengers include Telegram or Threema in Switzerland. However, the latter is charged once, so it can only be installed on a few smartphones.

Messenger app: 15 WhatsApp alternatives for Android and iOS

Watch now

In our pandemic guide, we also list many options for you to deal with the current restrictions on family public life. Among other things, we list various free services, free PC games or other things that make it easier for you to isolate.