Data protectionists: Ban on data exchange between Facebook and WhatsApp
from David Wurm 
on September 27, 2016, 19:54 am | 6 comments
The Hamburg data protection officer Johannes Caspar has forbidden Facebook and Twitter with immediate effect from collecting an exchange of user data from WhatsApp. This should offer WhatsApp users more data protection again. So far, this ban only applies in Germany.
A few weeks ago WhatsApp a change in the terms of use carried out. In these it was described that data has been allowed to be shared between Facebook and WhatsApp servers since September 25. It was also possible for users to object to this until Sunday - but the objection is not fully valid. Only no data is processed for personalized advertising on Facebook. Now that is no longer possible with German users like that Tagesschau reported today.
Facebook has to adhere to German data protection law
In February 2014, WhatsApp was taken over by Facebook. Here it was said, however, that no data would be exchanged between the two servers as a result of the takeover. Since data are still flowing, this is "a misleading of users and the public", says Caspar. In addition, this exchange violates the German data protection requirements. For this reason, Facebook has to delete the WhatsApp user data already collected from users in Germany.
According to Caspar, it must be up to the user to decide whether Facebook can transfer data from WhatsApp. A simple change to the terms of use does not apply here. The user would have to agree to this exchange by ticking the box in the settings. The Cologne IT lawyer Christian Solmecke even sees the whole thing as "blackmailing" users through WhatsApp or Facebook. This regulation currently only applies in Germany. It is to be hoped that this ban will also be enforced in countries such as Austria and Switzerland.
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It's correct. Keep it up!
Thanks for this article!
But, you don't believe that WhatsApp will stick to it. Both are after the data and will continue to exchange them. They will not pay attention to the data protection act ... How else could you check whether they are really sticking to it?
So I don't think that's right. I don't know what you mean.
I think it has to work out somehow. Even if WhatsApp has a large reach, you have to adhere to that. Finally, there are now other messengers that can be used when WhatsApp does not comply.
[...] the data consumption of WhatsApp is heavily discussed in Germany, since WhatsApp has been complying with the terms of use regarding the [...]