5 Reasons Why You Should Not Use WhatsApp for Work

Today’s mobile-first workforce brings considerable improvements in productivity and quality to enterprises, and many workers use a variety of mobile applications to accomplish that. The downside of the company’s propagation of mobile apps is the protection and enforcement threats that may come with them. This is particularly true as workers use mobile messaging apps for business communication and collaboration of a consumer-grade type, such as WhatsApp.

While teamwork is essential to improving productivity and performance, enterprises should not put compliance and security at risk to make improvements in those fields.

See our five insights on why you should not use WhatsApp for business:

1. GDPR Compliance

WhatsApp might not store your messages; it does hold the address book information of every one of its users, including contacts who haven’t even downloaded WhatsApp as stated in their policy:

The phone numbers of WhatsApp users, and your other contacts in your mobile address book on a regular basis, including for both the users of our Services and your other contacts.

According to the GDPR, businesses are responsible for the protection of client and staff data. These are some of the reasons how WhatsApp for business use puts your data at risk:

• Without having a dedicated audit trail, tracking shared messages, files, and data, it is an impossible task to examine the data you possess.

• WhatsApp users are required to share their contact list, and under the GDPR, organizations must be able to keep a record of permissions from people whose data you store.

• WhatsApp states that the names, timestamps, and mobile phone numbers, “as well as any other information which WhatsApp is legally compelled to collect.” are maintained on their servers forever. You are unable to guarantee customers that you can eliminate all their details, as required by the GDPR. 

Messagenius is 100% GDPR-compliant, leak-proof, and an all-round business communications app. Learn more on our security here.

2. Malware Threats

WhatsApp has seen an array of attacks that put users’ entire mobiles at risk over the years. However, it begs the question, how can this even happen to an app that has over 2 billion users?

They occur through particular ‘vulnerabilities’ found within the app and are made possible by merely modifying the JavaScript code, scrutinizing bugs in its system, or social engineering. Such vulnerabilities can put your entire organization at risk.

Here are some of the most critical components to assess when identifying a perfect business communications app such as Messagenius:

• Exclusive ownership and control over encryption keys and security settings 
• Flexible On-Premise or Cloud Installation 
• GDPR compliant

Get in touch with Messagenius team today to protect your enterprise data.

3. The WhatsApp End-to-End Encryption Myth

“End-to-End encryption sounds nice — but if anyone can get into your phone’s operating system, they will be able to read your messages without having to decrypt them.”

Source: Bloomberg

WhatsApp currently uses the open-source Signal protocol; however, its implementation is not open-source, and so does not have the same level of transparency. 

Another flaw to the End-to-End Encryption of WhatsApp is that the moment you decide to back up your phone to Google Drive or iCloud, that encryption is gone.

Get exclusive ownership and control over encryption keys and security settings with Messagenius today.

4. Data Ownership

Imagine trying to track all the chat conversations of all your employees, without having the right to check their messages. An employee leaves for whatever reason, and those business group chats are all stored within their device, making it impossible for you to know what will become of all that data. 

The WhatsApp Privacy Policy states you can delete your account; however, the data already sent remain with them, as highlighted in the WhatsApp terms of service:

…Please remember that when you delete your account, it does not affect the information other users have relating to you, such as their copy of the messages you sent them.

With Messagenius, great features include Black Box Chats, and they are always certified between the sender and recipient.

5. Risk Mixing Work with Pleasure 

WhatsApp now has over 2 billion users, and you can be confident many of these are your colleagues and employees, organising family events, or keeping in touch with old friends. Add several workgroup chats to the mix, and you risk mixing work with pleasure.

WhatsApp for business use offers limited admin controls, so you are unable to authorise a specific set of people to share, chat, and receive data. 

The use of a business communications app ensures professionalism when exchanging office information with their peers and supervisors. 

Messagenius’ suite of collaboration features ensures that the whole office is more productive when communicating internally without taking away the enjoyment and facility of messaging from one’s phone.

In conclusion, employees in a digitally powered era need state-of-the-art resources to help them operate more effectively, productively, and safely.

The solution is to implement safe business messaging in a way that aligns with the communication workflows and current infrastructure of their company while enabling workers to leave consumer messaging apps and adopt Messagenius, a business communications app.

Messagenius expands the advantages of mobile messaging through all preferred business communication platforms – text, voice, and video. Such benefits combined with the ease of mobile messaging not only promotes teamwork but also increases in productivity.

Messagenius provides businesses a way to increase efficiency and productivity at work without compromising security or compliance.