WhatsApp told to stop sharing data with Facebook

WhatsApp is in the news lately-both for the good and bad reasons. On one side, the messaging platform has been adding newer features to its app to enhance the user experience. While on the other side, the company has been told to stop sharing data with its parent company Facebook. France's watchdog CNIL has ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing data with Facebook. According to a public notice posted on the French website, the app has one month to comply with the order.

The CNIL's order states, "While the security purpose seems to be essential to the efficient functioning of the application, it is not the case for the "business intelligence" purpose which aims at improving performances and optimizing the use of the application through the analysis of its users' behavior. The Chair of the CNIL considered that the data transfer from WhatsApp to Facebook for this "business intelligence" purpose is not based on the legal basis required by the Data Protection Act for any processing. In particular, neither the users' consent nor the legitimate interest of WhatsApp can be used as arguments in this case."

The CNIL rule states that WhatsApp never told its users it was collecting data for business intelligence and there's no way to opt out without uninstalling the app which violates the fundamental freedom of users.

This is not the first incident where WhatsApp-Facebook data sharing has been condemned. Germany has also ordered Facebook to stop collecting data from WhatsApp users.