the ROME – The Privacy watchdog has launched an investigation “following the change of policy made by WhatsApp at the end of August which involves the making available of Facebook of some of the information concerning the accounts of individual users and also for marketing purposes”. He informs the authority that it has invited WhatsApp and Facebook to provide all the elements useful to the evaluation of the case.
“WhatsApp is in compliance with the law on the protection of Eu data – replication, the spokesman of the messenger – and we will work with the Italian Garante in an attempt to answer their questions and resolve any problems.” Full availability, therefore, from the other party called in cause, together with the giant california that defends the interests.
The question is over on the tables of the european Commission already at the beginning of September. To express the concerns of the antitrust privacy magazine ‘in favour’ of the social network, then, has been the European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. The goal? To verify the possible violation of Eu rules on the part of the service, which was acquired in 2014 by Facebook, which today has a population of over 1.7 billion users.
Germany against WhatsApp. And right from the heart of the Eu comes to the first stop. The authority for the protection of privacy with headquarters in Hamburg ordered Facebook to delete any data it has already received via WhatsApp by some of the approximately 35 million German users, recalling that on the occasion of the take-over, to reassure the authority, the network was committed to not share such information. The collection of data, according to the social still would not have taken place. In any case, the prohibition applies “immediately”, waiting for that Facebook present appeals to a court of Hamburg. In the case of non-compliance, the authority – by appealing to the fact that the social network for us to process the data in German in the hanseatic city – can impose fines. The reports the German agency Dpa, reporting that Facebook always claims that its european activity is managed in Ireland.
“Must be the users to decide whether to link their accounts with Facebook,” said the guarantor of the German, for the protection of personal data, Johannes Caspar. In short, the parties should reverse: is Facebook a duty to ask their permission, without giving it for granted. Caspar has also said to want to enable co-ordination with authority of other european countries to prevent the flow of data from the app green on Facebook.
The policy is challenged. In detail, the new rules provide that some of the information related to subscribers to WhatsApp (under “account info” of the service) to be reused by Facebook for advertising purposes. “WhatsApp could offer the marketing Services of Facebook, a company which is now part of” the law in the new regulation, launched about a month ago.
and Yet, the note on Whatsapp.com clarifies: “Neither WhatsApp, nor Facebook, nor any other: we will not send you or share your number of WhatsApp with others, including on Facebook, and we will not sell, share or give your phone number to advertisers”.
investigations. But this was not enough the reassurance of Menlo Park compared to the limited use to third parties: the supervisor now wants to learn more in the field of data protection. In particular, the authority asked to know in detail about “the type of data that WhatsApp intends to place at the disposal of Facebook; the procedures for the acquisition of consent on the part of the users to the communication of the data; measures to ensure the exercise of the rights recognized by the Italian legislation on privacy, which considered that the notice sent on the individual device, the revocation of consent and the right of opposition seem to be able to be exercised in a limited period of time”.
The alarm of the Guarantor. The concern goes well beyond the exchange between the two platforms. “The new privacy policy adopted by Facebook and WhatsApp, which poses serious concerns from the point of view of the protection of personal data,” says Antonello Soro, president of the Italian Authority, in the Bend, remembering that the exchange of mailing lists between services cannot take place without the consent of the members. “The massive influx of data not only concerns users of Facebook or WhatsApp, – insists the Guarantor – but also extends to those who are not registered to either of the two services, whose data are disclosed for the simple fact of being in a phone book of a user of WhatsApp”.
it is Not the first time that the social network blu ends up in the storm because of the privacy. Last July, the company Mark Zuckerberg has had to take a step back after you have permitted to use geolocation to suggest new friends to their students. In this case, had then clarified Facebook, it was only a test. But this time Europe is not to watch, and the couple Facebook-WhatsApp is called to revise its rules (or at least take measures to ensure the protection of the requested data to the user.
The still settings. In reality, it is still possible to work around the constraint to the centre of the controversy. Those who have not yet updated the app by accepting the terms of use can choose the option “Read all”, then deselect the function to the item “Share your account information WhatsApp with Facebook”. Those who have given their consent have 30 days to reconsider, by modifying the entry Settings >> Account >> Share the information in my account.
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