Companies risk high fines when using messengers
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Services such as Whatsapp often do not comply with company data protection rules
Quelle: picture alliance / Dutch Photo P
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Many companies use services like WhatsApp and Teams that were actually developed for private use. In the worst case, the resulting data protection violations can threaten the existence of the company.
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UCompanies in Germany take high risks when they let their employees use messenger services that were developed for private use. This is the result of a legal study by the FZI Research Center for Computer Science in Karlsruhe, which WELT AM SONNTAG is exclusively available to.
“Companies, associations or authorities risk high sanctions if they violate data protection regulations in internal or external communication,” says the head of the study, Manuela Wagner. “Numerous instant messengers developed especially for private use hardly or not at all meet the relevant legal requirements for data and trade secrets protection in the European Union. ”
The study, which was commissioned by the Swiss messenger specialist Threema, puts a finger in a wound. During the corona pandemic the messenger use increased again in companies. Employees not only communicate with one another via services such as Teams or WhatsApp. Contact with customers and consumers is also often done through it. Two thirds of all companies now use messenger services frequently or very frequently for their internal and external communication, as a representative survey by the digital association Bitkom has shown.
