Germany has banned WhatsApp deal of sharing data with Facebook. This is coming after the companies made it known that the data of WhatsApp users will be made available to Facebook so that the later can use it more in channeling and generating ads.
This revelation was not without opposition from many people who objected to the arrangement on the grounds that WhatsApp promised in the past that it was not going divulge the information of its users and would keep it private from advertisers.
Commissioner of Hamburg data protection has gone ahead to issue administrative order that will prevent the two companies from sharing data across Germany.
Facebook will not be allowed to store or collect data of users of WhatsApp in Germany as made known by the watchdog. The company has also been ordered to without delay delete data WhatsApp has forwarded to it. The watchdog said the reason the order was taken out is because the users of both companies never agreed to their data being shared. And until both company users reach a legal agreement, such cannot be done the watchdog added.
The European Court of Justice has just recently made a suggestion that laws that seek to protect national data should be respected by international companies if they are to operate in such country. Facebook makes use of Hamburg as a subsidiary in the operating in the German-speaking area which makes Facebook susceptible to receiving orders from its watchdog. However, it is not yet known if Facebook will listen to the order.
Hamburg commissioner in the area of freedom of information and data protection, Johannes Casper said that the order seeks to protect information of not less than 35 million users of WhatsApp in Germany. He made this known in a statement while adding the Facebook ought to first of all get the permission of the users before carrying out such and that till date such permission has not been given to the users. He added that it was possible that most of the users never granted access to any of the two companies.
He also added that a users contact detail is also uploaded on WhatsApp and that this also includes the people that might not even be on Facebook or WhatsApp which according to Facebook is a gigantic connection yet to be tapped into.
