• Home
  • Apps
  • Apps News
  • Facebook's EU Regulator Says WhatsApp Yet to Resolve Data Sharing Issue

Facebook's EU Regulator Says WhatsApp Yet to Resolve Data Sharing Issue

Facebook's EU Regulator Says WhatsApp Yet to Resolve Data Sharing Issue
Highlights
  • WhatsApp started sharing users' information with Facebook over a year ago
  • This move drew widespread regulatory scrutiny across Europe
  • WhatsApp subsequently suspended the data sharing for EU users
Advertisement

WhatsApp has still not brought forward proposals to address EU regulators' concerns over the messaging service's sharing of user data with parent company Facebook, Facebook's European regulator said on Wednesday.

The popular messaging service changed its privacy policy over a year ago to start sharing users' phone numbers and other information with Facebook. That drew widespread regulatory scrutiny across Europe, and WhatsApp subsequently suspended the data sharing for EU users.

The Irish data protection authority (DPC) - which has jurisdiction over Facebook because the company's European headquarters are in Dublin - said last April it hoped to reach a deal with WhatsApp on the data sharing in a matter of months.

With no proposals forthcoming, the DPC said it had maintained its insistence that WhatsApp's EU personal data not be shared with Facebook for the management of advertising campaigns and product enhancement purposes until it was satisfied there was a lawful basis for doing so.

"At this point the ball is in their court to bring forward what would be a credible process to legitimise the processing and no such options to this point have been presented to us," Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon told Reuters in an interview.

"In fact WhatsApp reconfirmed with us recently that moving into GDPR in May, it would continue to observe the pause on processing of data for these purposes," she said, referring to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which from May will require firms to give customers more control over their online information.

European Union privacy regulators criticised WhatsApp in October for not resolving the concerns, a year after they first issued a warning.

A spokeswoman for Facebook Ireland was not immediately available for comment.

The DPC also said it was approaching a conclusion in its investigation into a massive 2014 data breach at US Internet company Yahoo - now part of Oath - that led to the theft of data from 500 million users.

Yahoo, whose assets were mostly acquired by Verizon Communications last year, only revealed in late 2016 that hackers had stolen the data in 2014, prompting criticism from US politicians into the delay in notifying customers.

"We're literally in the final stages of completing that report, it's very imminent at this stage," Dixon said, adding the results would be given to Oath and that her office also intended to publish a summary of its findings.

© Thomson Reuters 2018

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Apps, Social, EU, WhatsApp, Facebook, Privacy
Microsoft Teams Rolls Out Full Guest Access Support, Freemium Model May Be Available Soon
Share on Facebook Gadgets360 Twitter Share Tweet Snapchat Share Reddit Comment google-newsGoogle News
 
 

Advertisement

Follow Us

Advertisement

© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2024. All rights reserved.
Trending Products »
Latest Tech News »