Privacy Groups Pounce on WhatsApp Data Handover to Facebook
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In 2014, when Facebook announced its proposed acquisition of mobile messaging service WhatsApp, the news rang data privacy alarm bells at the Federal Trade Commission. Now, just days after WhatsApp said it will alter its privacy policy to allow it to transfer user phone numbers and other data to Facebook to enable communications between brands and consumers, two privacy groups have petitioned the FTC to block the move.
In their letter to the commission on Monday, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy asked the FTC to investigate WhatsApp. The groups called the data handover to Facebook “unfair and deceptive,” noting, “WhatsApp users could not reasonably have anticipated that by selecting a pro-privacy messaging service, they would subject their data to Facebook’s data collection practices.”
EPIC argued the data transfer should take place only on an opt-in basis.
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