France’s watchdog CNIL has given WhatsApp orders to stop sharing user data with parent company Facebook. According to the public notice published on the French website, WhatsApp now has a month to comply with this order.
This began when WhatsApp last updated its terms of service last year that prompted the app data to be shared with Facebook to develop targeted advertising, business intelligence, and security measures. CNIL investigated these claims and ruled that while WhatsApp’s intentions of improving security measures were valid, the app’s business intelligence reason wasn’t as accepted.
WhatsApp never told its users that it was collecting data for business intelligence reasons and there’s also no possible way to opt out without completely uninstalling the app. CNIL says that this violates “the fundamental freedoms of users.”
