378 NEWSLETTER 2021 Authority made a public announcement on 12.01.2021 that it has started an ex officio investigation regarding the WhatsApp Privacy Principles and data transfer to Facebook Companies within the framework of Personal Data Protection Law numbered 6698 (“PDPL”), and has shared the result of its pre-evaluation.3 The Statements of WhatsApp Upon all of these ex-officio investigations and speculations that have created public debates,WhatsApp released statements in response to the discussions titled, Answering your questions about WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy4, and About new business features and WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy update5. In the statement, WhatsApp announced that the content of users’ personal messages and calls (communications) could not be seen/intercepted by them and Facebook, and that the user’s connections were not transferred to Facebook. It was stated that personal messages are protected by an end-to-end encryption mechanism (E2E, Signal encryption protocol).6 According to the relevant statements, data processing and transfer activities that have changed with the update in the privacy policy will be valid for communication with the businesses during the use of the new service to be offered. Accordingly, chats with businesses that use the WhatsApp Business app or manage and store customer messages themselves are also end-to-end encrypted. Once the message is received, it will be subject 3 The PublicAnnouncement of the Personal Data Protection Board onWhatsAppApplication, 12.01.2021 https://www.kvkk.gov.tr/Icerik/6856/WHATSAPP-UYGULAMASI-HAKKINDA-KAMUOYU-DUYURUSU (Access date: 21.01.2021). 4 Answering your questions about WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy, https://faq.whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/answering-your-questions-about-whatsapps-privacy-policy?lang=en (Access date: 21.01.2021). 5 About new business features and WhatsApp’s Privacy Policy update, https://faq. whatsapp.com/general/security-and-privacy/about-new-business-features-andwhatsapps-privacy-policy-update?lang=en (Access date: 21.01.2021). 6 “End-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you are communicating with can read or listen to what is sent, including no one in-between, not even WhatsApp. This is because with end-to-end encryption, your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them.” https://www.whatsapp.com/security/?lang=en (Access date: 21.01.2021).
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