The main concern here is to ban spidering, harvesting and the like. But again, context is important when reading clauses like this. This seems pretty damning on its face: you can’t copy any content you receive through WhatsApp to anywhere else. (ii) you will not duplicate, transfer, give access to, copy or distribute any part of the Service in any medium without WhatsApp’s prior written authorization However, again given the context it is clear to me that this clause is directed towards indexing or harvesting data, not merely storing a log file for later perusal. Technically, it is a TOS violation to take a chat log and store it in a CRM system: that is “collecting” personally identifiable information (the customer name) from the WhatsApp service.
It would not be logical to conclude in that context that any use by a business would be a TOS violation. WhatsApp clearly does not want people to use its service to send unwanted commercial messages.Ĭontext is important with legal clauses: the paragraph talks about harvesting and spamming. However, “commercial solicitation” clearly refers to things like cold calling, initiating a conversation with people who did not consent to it. Most of the claims that WhatsApp forbids commercial use is based on this phrase (or an earlier version of it).
You agree not to spam, or solicit for commercial purposes, any users of the Service. You agree not to collect or harvest any personally identifiable information, including phone number, from the Service, nor to use the communication systems provided by the Service for any commercial solicitation or spam purposes. However, let’s take a look at the exact provisions: Several sources are reporting however that this is problematic, as the WhatsApp Terms of Service contain provisions against commercial use. The benefits are evident: chatting is more efficient than telephone calls, and in addition logs and photos can be collected to provide proof and documentation.
More and more companies are using the popular WhatsApp messaging service to provide customer service or even sales or acquisition. IAAL, and using WhatsApp for customer service or even (solicited) sales chats is perfectly legal. According to many sources, using WhatsApp commercially is illegal because its Terms of Service ban use “for any commercial solicitation or spam purposes.” But this has nothing to do with business use of WhatsApp. There seems to be a widespread misunderstanding regarding WhatsApp for businesses.
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