Owners of the messaging application WhatsApp could face serious legal sanctions if they do not stop sharing user data with parent company Facebook. This is after France's Chair of the National Data Protection Commission (Commission Nationale de l'informatique et des libertés, or CNIL) posted a public notice saying that the data sharing violates user freedom.
According to CNIL, WhatsApp revised their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy in 2016, after they were acquired by Facebook in 2014. The revised Terms and Policy stated that by using WhatsApp, users are authorizing the app to share details with the social media giant for three purposes. One, for targeted advertising; two, for security; and three, for improvement of service, or more commonly known as "business intelligence."
The CNIL notice stated that the sharing of user data between WhatsApp and Facebook is valid for security purposes. However, they add that data-sharing in this way as a means to improve "business intelligence" is a violation of the Data Protection Act.
They also said that "consent" as provided by the users when installing WhatsApp is "not free." They argue that the only way to opt out of the data transfer for "business intelligence" purposes is to uninstall the app.
Thus, the CNIL ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing data with Facebook for such purposes, and they should comply within one month. This is to comply with the Data Protection Act.
In a response to Engadget, Facebook said that they will continue to work with the CNIL to ensure that "users understand what information we collect, as well as how it's used." They also recognized that privacy is important to WhatsApp. They stated that they collect "very little data and encrypt every message."
This is not the first time that Facebook got in trouble with the European Union (EU). Just earlier this year in May, Facebook was fined $122 million by EU because it provided misleading information about its acquisition of WhatsApp.
