Remember back in August 2016, WhatsApp was giving you changes in Terms and Privacy policy notifications. Saying, going forward it will be sharing your data with its parent company Facebook. Their reason being, they want to enable Facebook to data mine your basic metrics on things like how often you use the app and to help them protect you from spam.
Well, if you agreed to these new Terms and Privacy policy, you might have noticed how intuitive and just how well Facebook has become in recommending to new friends. Friends, you should send friend requests to on Facebook. Even the ads that bombard on Facebook have become all-time relevant. That’s all thanks to the data mining Facebook is doing off your WhatsApp account.
It turns out, WhatsApp could be infringing on your rights to privacy by doing so. The first privacy watchdog to raise a red flag was in the European Union. If you can remember, in September 2016, the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information made an order that stopped Facebook from collecting and storing WhatsApp data from the 35 million people in Germany.
Fast-forward to December; the European Commission made an objection to Facebook. The commission accused Facebook of giving incorrect and misleading information. On the possibility of linking users’ accounts during the 2014 review of its acquisition of WhatsApp at $19 billion.
The most recent accusation leveled on Facebook about right to privacy concerns on WhatsApp is by the Federation of German Consumer Organization. The Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband, or VZBV. VZBV has filed a case at the Berlin county court asking for an injunction that bars data sharing between WhatsApp and Facebook. In addition to forcing Facebook to delete all the data, it has collected so far from WhatsApp. VZBV is accusing Facebook of abusing the users’ trust.