Recently, Zapper had an incredible experience participating in the Expo Compliance 2024, where it featured a booth and conducted a workshop for managers, lawyers, professionals in the area of compliance and ethics in companies.

On this occasion, the team had the opportunity to personally present the pioneering solution for monitoring corporate WhatsApp in Latin America and to understand the main pain points of organizations and the major questions regarding the implementation of communication governance on the messaging app.

In the accounts of each prospect, some bad experiences were common, such as the leakage of confidential information through the company's WhatsApp, the absence of a data handling strategy, and the loss of important conversations that occurred on the app.

Until then, these individuals did not know that it is already possible to monitor interactions on the platform, store conversations and files sent through it, and even extract conversational intelligence from dialogues to feed back the company's operations.

Because of this, we decided to gather the major implementation questions regarding Zapper in this blog post!

Question #1 – What does the law say about monitoring corporate WhatsApp?

Emails, access to websites, and phone calls have always been supervised by organizations for security and employee productivity control reasons. With the popularization of WhatsApp in the corporate environment, managers realized the need to also monitor conversations occurring on the platform, between the company and third parties, as the app has become the most accessible means of contact.

However, due to it being a relatively new practice, there is still much apprehension about this type of monitoring, since WhatsApp may be installed on the employee's personal smartphone, and monitoring it can feel like an invasion of privacy.

In Brazil, there is still no regulation on the subject, but there is favorable case law for companies regarding the supervision of emails and chats occurring on devices and accounts owned by corporations. This initiative is, indeed, common in companies that prioritize compliance.

Read also: LGPD and WhatsApp: What You Need to Know

According to Article 10 of the 5th Inciso of the Federal Constitution, "the intimacy, private life, honor, and image of individuals are inviolable," therefore the focus of a company should really be on the corporate account, to observe compliance with internal standards and prevent leaks and misconduct.

It is important to emphasize that if the employer detects the misuse of social media by employees, with a violation of any contractual clause or any duty attached to the contract — such as loyalty or non-compete — the worker can be penalized.

The ideal is to ALWAYS inform employees that their corporate WhatsApp accounts will be monitored and to record their consent in a document, attached to the contract. Candidates for a position at the company should already be informed about this prerogative during the interview, to avoid any disagreement after hiring.

Read also: How to engage the team in monitoring corporate WhatsApp?

Question #2 – How does corporate WhatsApp monitoring work?

The communications manager for corporate WhatsApp should register keywords in the platform that indicate suspicious dialogues, that is, conversations that signal misconduct, non-compliance with company policies, bribery requests, harassment of any type, use of inappropriate language, etc.

When these words are mentioned in interactions, a notification will be sent to this manager, who can immediately access the conversation and assess whether the case needs immediate intervention.

That’s why it’s so important to guide corporate WhatsApp users in advance about what should be discussed on the corporate account, what the best approach is, and the language to be used to avoid misunderstandings, risks to the company’s image, and even harsher penalties.

Read also: Data security and governance is a trend for corporate WhatsApp

Encouraging employees to interact professionally only through the corporate account is a form of protection for everyone involved in the conversation and ensures potential legal issues are addressed.

Question #3 - Do I need to have multiple corporate numbers or devices?

When opting for Zapper's monitoring on corporate WhatsApp, the ideal is to adopt the Business version for communications between the company and third parties. This classifies conversations occurring in this environment as professional, therefore, allowed for monitoring.

Zapper can monitor a single account with several users as well as individual accounts simultaneously, from different devices, making the operation ideal for companies that operate in a hybrid work system or have external representatives.

It is recommended that the employer log into the Zapper platform on each device/account to be supervised to ensure the monitoring functions properly. If any employee logs out of the platform, they should be alerted to return to the monitoring environment.

Question #4 – How are monitored conversations stored?

Dialogues, video, photo, or audio files are stored in the cloud for an indefinite period, with restricted access for the communications manager, to ensure the security required by the General Data Protection Law.

With the proper archiving of interactions, the company can refer to the records for consultation in potential legal issues and thus protect its image and reputation in the market.

Read also: Why back up your corporate WhatsApp?

Corporations that show this level of care with internal and external communication are better evaluated in Due Diligence processes during a merger or acquisition.

Another advantage of storing corporate WhatsApp conversations with Zapper is that the manager can create filters to gather strategic information from dialogues, which will serve as a basis for analytical reports in various areas of the company. Peak interaction times, high conversion campaigns, recurring complaints are some examples.

Conclusion

Zapper is the most complete solution in the Latin American market for governing messages via corporate WhatsApp, with functionalities ranging from monitoring to data processing. Count on our partnership to reinforce your company's security and integrity policies and identify areas for operation improvement through conversational intelligence. We're here for that!