Zalo called for boycott
As Lao Dong Newspaper reflected in the article "Signs of abnormality in Zalo updating terms, collecting user personal data", Zalo has issued a series of controversial personal data collection terms. Notably, if users do not agree with the terms of the agreement issued by Zalo, they will not be able to continue using the service.
After this move from Zalo, a wave of calls to boycott Zalo took place. PV's record on the evening of December 28 shows that users have flooded into online application markets and left a 1-star rating for the Zalo application.
Accompanying the 1-star rating, many accounts also left comments such as: "Imposing will, forcing users to agree to payments causing many consequences for users"; "Forcing users to accept terms without other choices"; "Extremely annoying because while running work, a request box appears to press agree to all terms to be used. Putting users in a passive position"...
Even some social media users posted articles expressing their frank opinion that they would delete Zalo and called on friends and partners to take similar actions.
Meanwhile, talking about the reason for updating the Terms of Use, Zalo said: The Terms of Use is the necessary content as a basis for all activities of the application and technology platform. The Terms of Use stipulate how to provide and use services between providers and users, ensuring compliance with current legal regulations.
Updating the Terms of Use is a common activity for all applications and technology platforms around the world, to ensure compliance with legal regulations and provide clear information to users about changes in the service provision process.
However, Zalo has not yet spoken out about controversial content such as: Zalo's agreement only allows "Agree all" but does not allow partial content consent; users believe that they are forced to agree otherwise they will not be able to continue using the service and a series of terms on information sharing, exemption from all liability... are causing great frustration.
Update the terms a few days before the Law on Personal Data Protection takes effect
Zalo's sudden move to update service terms just days before the Law on Personal Data Protection takes effect from the beginning of 2026 raises many doubts about the motive and true purpose of this activity.
Sharing his views on the case, a legal expert said that the Law on Protection of Personal Data affirms a key principle that the processing of personal data must be based on voluntary, clear and selective consent from the data subject.
However, reality shows that Zalo users are being pushed into an imposed choice. If they want to continue texting and calling - functions that have become essential in daily life - they are forced to accept all terms allowing collecting and processing personal data that Zalo provides. No partial choice, no reasonable refusal mechanism. Users are only allowed to "turn their heads" or leave the platform. Agreement in this case is clearly difficult to say is voluntary agreement.
According to self-published statistics, by September 2025, Zalo has 79 million monthly regular users and about 2 billion messages sent every day. Cloudflare Radar's 2025 year-end report also points out that in the domestic market, Zalo ranks No. 1 and continues to dominate the messaging platform market.
In the context that Zalo is no longer simply a personal or entertainment messaging application, but has become a popular communication infrastructure, the introduction of imposing terms, especially related to personal data, is really causing many concerns.
