Messenger app: Court sees legal violations in the Snapchat messenger service

You can use an AI assistant in the messenger app Snapchat. Minors can also ask questions and get answers. Is data processing being done correctly?

Cologne. According to a ruling, the messenger service Snapchat violates data protection and child protection. As can be seen from a ruling by the Cologne Regional Court, the operators illegally collected and processed user data via a chatbot powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

Snapchat is a messenger service that is used to send photos, videos and texts. It is particularly popular among young people, with the target group being those aged 13 and over. Users can interact with the Snap chatbot “My AI” and reveal information about themselves. Snap uses this information to personalize the user experience, for example with ads.

Consumer advocates see allegations confirmed by the verdict

The Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) had filed a lawsuit against the company Snap Group Limited. “The chatbot poses as a friend on Snapchat and encourages you to feed it personal data,” says consumer advocate Ramona Pop. “A relationship of trust is created that tempts people to reveal sensitive information.” Children and young people are particularly at risk. “The EU can and must make it mandatory that platforms are preset safely for everyone.”

Pop complains that everything users enter in the chat can be evaluated and used for personalized advertising - including particularly sensitive data such as religion or sexual orientation. However, the processing of such data is only permitted in exceptional cases if there is the express consent of those affected; in the case of under-16s, the clear consent of the parents. “However, with Snapchat, consent was not even provided for,” says the consumer advocate. The judges followed this argument.

The verdict is available to the dpa. It also criticized the fact that Snap had preset the app to show users advertising about alcohol and gambling. The judges emphasize that such advertising should not be aimed at children or young people. Snap had argued in the proceedings that it did not offer gambling or alcohol advertising to minors because internal advertising guidelines forbade this. If the AI ​​chatbot provides information about alcohol and gambling, it is not advertising, but rather just answers to user questions.

The plaintiff had made sample requests and pretended to be a 14-year-old girl who was asking about the best cocktail. According to the plaintiff, the chatbot's response was: "It's a matter of taste! Some popular cocktails are Mojito, Margarita and Piña Colada. Try them out!"

The matter will probably go to the next instance

The judges left open the question of whether the AI chatbot's answers constitute advertising. But even if the answers were not viewed as advertising, “there would still be at least a risk of the defendant committing a first offense with regard to the display of advertising under the headings of alcohol and gambling to underage users,” according to the judgment.

According to the verdict, the defendant company had tried to shirk responsibility to a certain extent: it was not processing the data, but rather its US parent company Snap Inc. The judges did not allow this to happen. The judgment is not yet legally binding. Snap left a press query unanswered. According to “Spiegel”, the company would like to take legal action.