DON’T USE WHATSAPP FOR BUSINESS!
The expert view is that businesses should not use WhatsApp for business. Dr. Ajunwa, Assistant Professor of Labour and Employment Law at Cornell University has this to say:
“Employers should have an official policy banning employees from using ephemeral messaging apps for specifically business-related communications. Allowing employees to use disappearing-message apps for business communications opens the employer to unnecessary liability.”
A recent Wall Street Journal article provides consensus from a group of experts in cybersecurity, data compliance and privacy, and labour law, who all say the same thing – just don’t do it!
WHAT YOUR EMPLOYEES CAN AND CAN’T DO
Your employees have the right to use WhatsApp for personal, private, legal and non-related work communication. That’s their prerogative. And, whether you like it or not, they can use WhatsApp in the workplace for the same reasons. Unfortunately, you can’t infringe on the personal rights and freedoms of individuals. However, if their communications are in any way business-related then the use of WhatsApp, or other consumer messaging apps, is forbidden.
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T USE WHATSAPP
There are some pressing reasons for not using WhatsApp as a business communications tool. Here are 6 of them:
- WhatsApp prohibits business use and its Terms of Service stipulate that “You will not use (or assist others in using) our Services in ways that:(f) involve any non-personal use of our Services unless otherwise authorized by us.”
- WhatsApp is not GDPR compliant
- Backups of WhatsApp are not encrypted and neither are exports of chats
- WhatsApp gives you little control over keeping records of business communications – by design, Facebook has committed WhatsApp to encryption, which supports secrecy and anonymity.
- Your account can be terminated at any time. Again, the WhatsApp Terms of Service confirms: “WhatsApp reserves the right to modify, suspend or terminate service for any reason without prior notice, at our sole discretion.”
- This is a big one – since WhatsApp data is stored on an individual’s phone, you can never revoke access to it. If an employee leaves, you can remove them from a WhatsApp Group, but all the messages they received and sent whilst in the group, including potentially sensitive data, will remain on their phone. There’s nothing you can do about it.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
It’s obvious that using WhatsApp, or other apps such as Signal and Telegram, are fundamentally inappropriate for business communications. They are not GDPR compliant, accounts can be closed at any time, and you have no control over critical business data. What can you do? You can use platforms like Microsoft Teams, which are specifically designed for businesses, giving you full jurisdiction over your communications and data. You can also use online collaboration tools such as Slack, Skype, and Zoom. Use Zhero’s for expert IT consultancy to ensure that your business operates within the law and all your work-related communications and data are always secure.
