European regulators warn WhatsApp about sharing user data with Facebook

In a letter sent recently to Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging service, European privacy watchdog group, the Article 29 Working Party (WP29), has warned the service about its changed privacy policy which facilitates the sharing of WhatsApp user data with Facebook.

With the changes made by WhatsApp to its privacy policy paving the way for the sharing of user data, the European regulators have told WhatsApp that they have some "serious concerns" about the changed policy.

In its warning to WhatsApp, the WP29 group has asked the service to stop sharing its user data with Facebook until it is duly ascertained that the sharing of data does not run afoul to the privacy regulations in Europe.

The warning to WhatsApp and the European regulators’ concerns about the company’s changed privacy policy have come against the backdrop of an August disclosure by WhatsApp that it would be sharing more user information with Facebook.

Meanwhile, with regard to the WP29 group’s concerns about the changed privacy policy, WhatsApp founder Jan Koum – to whom WP29 group’s letter was addressed – said that the WP29 “has serious concerns regarding the manner in which the information relating to the updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy was provided to users and consequently about the validity of the users’ consent.”