German regulator bars Facebook from collecting data of WhatsApp users

German privacy regulator yesterday ordered Facebook to stop collecting and storing data of German users of its messaging app WhatsApp and to delete all data already collected on around 35 million German users.

The move comes after WhatsApp announced last month that it would be changing its privacy policy and would share some of its users' online information with its parent company Facebook.

Facebook had acquired WhatsApp in 2014 for $16 billion and both companies had then publicly assured users that they would not share data with each other. (See: Facebook to buy smartphone-messaging app WhatsApp for a staggering $16 bn) http://www.domain-b.com/companies/companies_f/facebook/20140220_smartphone.html

The city of Hamburg's Data Protection and Freedom of Information commissioner said Facebook was infringing data privacy law and had not sought approval from WhatsApp's 35 million users in Germany.

Hamburg data protection commissioner Johannes Caspar said in a statement, ''Facebook and WhatsApp are independent companies that process their user's data on the basis of their own Terms and Conditions and Data Privacy Policies. After the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook two years ago, both parties have publicly assured that data would not be shared between them. The fact that this is now happening is not only misleading   -  the one that provides the data (WhatsApp) as well as the receiving company (Facebook) have established a legal basis for doing so.''

''Facebook, however, neither has obtained an effective approval from the WhatsApp users, nor does a legal basis for the data reception exist. It is clear that Facebook must respect German data protection law after the ECJ confirmed in its ruling from July, that national data protection laws are applicable if a company processes data in connection with a national subsidiary.''

Caspar went on to add that, ''This administrative order protects the data of about 35 million WhatsApp users in Germany. It has to be their decision, whether they want to connect their account with Facebook. Therefore, Facebook has to ask for their permission in advance. This has not happened. In addition, there are many millions of people whose contact details were uploaded to WhatsApp from the user's address books, although they might not even have a connection to Facebook or WhatsApp.''

Facebook, which has its German headquarters in Hamburg, yesterday said that it had complied with Europe's privacy rules and that it was willing to work with the regulator to address its concerns.

This issue has alerted regulators from other countries also. EU, the UK and the US regulators said they would look into the changes to privacy settings made by WhatsApp in August, while the Italian regulator said that it has launched a probe into WhatsApp's plan to share its user's data with Facebook and how user's data might be used.

Giving reasons for sharing its users data with Facebook, WhatsApp had in August said that the sharing of user's details and phone numbers would help both companies fight spam and would allow Facebook to offer "better friends suggestions and show you more relevant ads if you have an account with them".