LBCI

Does Cabinet WhatsApp decision violate privacy and law?

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17-10-2019 | 03:47

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Does Cabinet WhatsApp decision violate privacy and law?

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After the Lebanese Cabinet agreed to impose a 20-cent fee on the use of the free WhatsApp application and other applications (equivalent to $ 6 per month), SMEX (a Lebanese NGO that since 2008 has worked to defend digital rights, promote open culture and local content, and encourage critical, self-regulated engagement with digital technologies, media, and networks across the Middle East and North Africa) said on its Facebook page that the Ministry of Telecommunication and companies will use "intrusive techniques" that violate the privacy of users in order to know whether they are making a call via whatsApp or any other VOIP application.

It also asserted that this decision not only violates the privacy of users but also forces them to pay their Internet usage bill twice.

For its part, TechGeeK365 announced that it contacted Facebook and WhatsApp regarding this matter.

It said that a spokesman mentioned that if such a decision is taken, it would be "a direct violation" of the Terms of Service (ToS), pointing out that this application should be used “as is,” and that “profiting from any specific functionality within WhatsApp is illegal.”

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