Slashdot Mirror
WhatsApp, Gmail Roped Into Tougher EU Privacy Proposal (reuters.com)
Online messaging and email services such as WhatsApp, iMessage and Gmail will face tough new rules on how they can track users under a proposal presented by the European Union executive on Tuesday. From a report: The web players will have to guarantee the confidentiality of their customers' conversations and ask for their consent before tracking them online to serve them personalized ads. The proposal by the European Commission extends some rules that now only apply to telecom operators to web companies offering calls and messages using the internet, known as "Over-The-Top" (OTT) services, seeking to close a perceived regulatory gap between the telecoms industry and mainly U.S. Internet giants such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft.
No they don't.
If the users want confidentiality, they can choose the services that provide it.
The thing is Google subsidizes their products costs of the services rendering them "free"
Given the choice between the expensive confidential and less useful version and the free version, people will choose the less free one.
Finally you can't guarantee confidentiality unless YOU control the entire conversation end to end. The guy at the other end can share it, and unless it's encrypted someone along the way can snoop.
Companies won't offer "free" services unless they can find a way to make money off them, or they won't be around all that long.