Germany orders Facebook to stop sharing and delete WhatsApp user data

(credit: samazgor)

Facebook has been ordered to delete all the data that it currently holds of Germany’s 35 million WhatsApp users.

Johannes Caspar, the data protection commissioner of Hamburg, where Facebook Germany is headquartered, said Tuesday there was no legal basis for Facebook to use WhatsApp's user information.

“Facebook and WhatsApp are independent companies that process their user's data on the basis of their own terms and conditions and data privacy policies. After the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook two years ago, both parties have publicly assured that data will not be shared between them. The fact that this is now happening is not only a misleading of their users and the public, but also constitutes an infringement of national data protection law,” said Caspar in a statement, adding that “It has to be [users’] 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.”