Germany tells Facebook: don’t share users’ data with Whatsapp

Germany has stood up to Facebook by demanding that it stops taking user data from Whatsapp, the messaging app it bought in 2014, and delete any it has already received.

Whatsapp enraged many users in August when it said it would share your number with Facebook so the site could “offer better friend suggestions and show you more relevant ads”.

The country’s data-protection watchdog said that Facebook had broken a 2014 promise to keep the data of the two services separate.

Whatsapp does let users prevent Facebook from accessing their data (see how at www.snipca.com/21708), but Germany’s watchdog said this doesn’t go far enough. It said that Whatsapp should have asked its users for permission, and has now told the company it must do this in Germany, where around 35 million people use the service.

Facebook has said it will appeal against the ruling, claiming it is ready to “resolve any concerns” that the German authorities have.

Other countries including Italy have said they will investigate the issue, while the US Federal Trade Commission warned that Whatsapp and Facebook may have violated its guidelines with the changes. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) also said it was examining whether the companies had broken any data-protection laws. In a statement released in August, UK commissioner Elizabeth Denham said that while companies don’t need to get approval to change their privacy policies, they do need to stay within the law. She added: “Our role is to pull back the curtain on things like this, ensuring that companies are being transparent with the public about how their personal data is being shared, and protecting consumers by making sure the law is being followed.”