Privacy

WhatsApp for Clubs

WhatsApp may no longer be used by clubs as an official communication tool. Fortunately, there are tools designed for clubs like the Klubraum app, with which clubs can easily organize their club life and share all their club news in one place.

WhatsApp for Clubs

New WhatsApp message from Sofia in the hockey group: “It’s my birthday today and I’m bringing cake – I’m happy about everyone who stays a bit longer after training to celebrate with me 😉”. Great, cake! Lukas has been the first club chairman of his local club for almost a year now and is happy about this delicious change.

Since they founded the WhatsApp group for their club, many things in communication have become easier. Almost everyone uses WhatsApp privately and you can quickly and easily transmit information to the entire training team. Changed training times, announcements for upcoming events, information about upcoming games, arrangements regarding travel to games, and much more has already been discussed in the hockey WhatsApp group.

Lukas also wants to share important information via the WhatsApp group: the annual general meeting is coming up. Just before he writes the message, his phone signals an incoming new message. Tom, also on the board, writes: “Hi Lukas, did you hear the latest? You’re no longer allowed to use WhatsApp groups for official communication as a club. There are fines of up to 20 million euros 😱”

Lukas gets a brief shock when he sees the sum and immediately sits down at the laptop to check Tom’s statement. After less than a minute of searching, he finds the following article:

Communication in Clubs: WhatsApp and Privacy Problems

Since May 25, 2018, it has become significantly more difficult for clubs to use WhatsApp for group communication. The reason for this is the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which defines clear stricter rules for processing personal data.

Since WhatsApp constantly stores both the contacts from the user’s address book and many other personal data and transmits them to other companies in the Facebook group, WhatsApp violates the new privacy regulations.

As a private person, this is unproblematic – data processing for purely personal purposes is not covered. Companies and also clubs face major challenges when using WhatsApp.

And now? A few minutes and intensive research later, several things have become clearer to Lukas.

  1. Founding a WhatsApp group and using WhatsApp for official purposes as a club violates the new GDPR regulations and is punished.
  2. As a private person, using WhatsApp groups is possible. However, a club may not make official announcements via WhatsApp.
  3. Using a WhatsApp alternative for clubs and obtaining explicit consent from members for everything is too much effort or associated with too many costs for him.

The more Lukas thinks about WhatsApp communication for clubs, the more inappropriate WhatsApp appears to him as a means of communication. It has already led to some complications in the past. Not every club member uses WhatsApp, important messages get lost in a huge communication flow, it serves purely for information transmission, and now there’s the problem with GDPR!

WhatsApp is a communication platform and not an app for clubs.

What we need is a privacy-compliant WhatsApp alternative for clubs that ideally offers additional supporting functions, thinks Lukas and enters “WhatsApp for clubs” into Google and comes across “Klubraum”, an app tailor-made for clubs that is privacy-compliant and thus a sensible WhatsApp alternative for clubs.

Since Klubraum’s servers are located in Frankfurt and hosted by a Finnish company (and thus privacy-compliant according to EU law), Klubraum can be used in compliance with GDPR. We also guarantee that data is never shared with third parties unless this is absolutely necessary for using Klubraum and expressly desired by the user.

Lukas is particularly pleased to learn that Klubraum rejects the sharing of data as practiced by Facebook and WhatsApp out of conviction and is intended as a protected area for clubs.

Reassured, Lukas can go to sleep. Shortly before he falls asleep, he writes Tom another message: “Thanks Tom! We definitely can’t afford the 20 million 😉 I found a great app as a WhatsApp alternative that’s perfect for our club. You’ll like it!! I’ll show it to you tomorrow after training while eating cake.”

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