Hi,
What are your views on using whats app to contact customers, in terms of dealing with tenancy issues, such as rent payments etc. As the platform is not secure, would there be any issues?
Any thoughts or advice on organisations using whats app as a platform for communication would be greatly received.
thank you
Andrea
There was a recent case in Finland, where the Data Protection Authority ruled that a cleaning company breached the GDPR by using WhatsApp instant messaging services with its employees as a mean to share information about its customers. Among other things, the company had no means to oversee the use of personal data via WhatsApp, or otherwise impose restrictions on possible further use.
JeremyClarkson
We do use WhatsApp to communicate with tenants but we don’t want to continue using it. WhatsApp claim that they don’t store any of the messages on their side once they’ve been sent and delivered. However, given their bad press and relatively recent GDPR fine I’m still not convinced.
WhatsApp has presented some data issues for sure. We received a Subject Access Request from someone wanting to have all communications around their tenancy. I thought I gathered all the data from our CRM but then a staff member came forward and said they had WhatsApp conversations with the tenant which, wasn’t logged on the CRM. When we asked why the WhatsApp conversations weren’t logged on the CRM, we were told “it takes too long.”
So, I’d advise avoiding WhatsApp for communicating with your customers.