Conti bans Snapchat and WhatsApp on company phones

On 6 June Continental announced that it will prohibit the use of WhatsApp and Snapchat on company-owned mobile phones due to GDPR compliance concerns. The measure applies to all of Continental’s global locations and affects more than 36,000 mobile phones.

Conti representatives explained that the move is in response to the recent enactment of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) across the European Union. The law went into force last month and requires companies and other businesses to comply or face penalties as high as nearly $25 million or 4 per cent of global annual revenue.

A statement by Continental CEO Elmar Degenhart said: “We are working towards a goal of zero accidents in road traffic and consequently demand a similar ‘Vision Zero’ for data traffic.” With this in mind, it would therefore be “unacceptable” to place the burden of compliance with the new data regulations exclusively on users.

WhatsApp and Snapchat both require users to grant the services access to their digital contact data, including potentially confidential information about third-parties. Under the GDPR, consent must be obtained from all parties involved in order for companies to legally access and store such data.