Facebook Told To Stop Taking Data From German WhatsApp Users (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader shares a Bloomberg report: Facebook, already under scrutiny in the U.S. and the European Union for revisions to privacy policies for its WhatsApp messaging service, was ordered by Hamburg's privacy watchdog to stop processing data of German users of the chat service. In a renewed clash with the social-network operator, Johannes Caspar, one of Germany's most outspoken data protection commissioners, ordered Facebook to delete any data it already has. The news comes as EU privacy regulators, who previously expressed concerns about the policy shift, meet in Brussels to discuss their position. There's no legal basis for Facebook to use information of WhatsApp customers, Caspar said Tuesday. "This order protects the data of about 35 million WhatsApp users in Germany," Caspar said. "It has to be their decision as to whether they want to connect their account with Facebook. Therefore, Facebook has to ask for their permission in advance. This has not happened."

Comments

At least there is one state

[vikingpower]

having the decency to squarely tell Facebook "you're breaking our laws, stop it or else".

This is important.

[Anonymous Coward]

It is not discussed enough, if people have faith in company A and are happy to away their information to that company, that is fine. If company A then gets bought out in a hostile takeover by nasty company B - the original members never signed up to that and everyone should explicitly be made to opt in or all user data should be deleted. These huge companies are getting away with it all the time and posting conditions of service like it somehow absolves them from any laws. Creating a monopoly should be hindered, not rewarded.