After Facebook recently stopped collecting WhatsApp data in the UK, it’s now Europe’s turn. Immediate stop to the sharing of data between the two apps until the investigation into the alleged violation of user privacy is concluded.

Facebook had announced plans to collect data from the instant messaging application WhatsApp in August, sparking concern from users and data protection authorities, and contradicting previous assurances.

WhatsApp can share phone number, status and name. What about privacy ?

As a result, a number of countries asked Facebook to provide more information on how the data would be collected and used, and increased protection. The request then turned into a real investigation in countries like Italy and Germany.

Data sharing between Facebook and WhatsApp

“We asked Facebook and WhatsApp to sign a document to commit to better explaining to customers how their data will be used, to give users continuous control over this information,” said Elizabeth Denham of the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office .

Neither Facebook nor WhatsApp have yet accepted the invitation , but in the meantime the sharing of data for advertising purposes has been suspended, even if it remains for the fight against spam and for administrative reasons.

“We want to give people the opportunity to make a unique choice and the ability to change this decision at any time ,” Denham added.

“We think consumers deserve a higher level of information and protection, but so far Facebook and WhatsApp have not agreed.”

“We will continue to insist on this, both from our office and alongside other data protection authorities across Europe, most notably the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, where Facebook’s EU headquarters are based.”

Facebook bought WhatsApp for £ 11.4 billion in 2014 and the initial fear was that the instant messaging application would introduce advertising within the application. However, this did not materialize and WhatsApp even eliminated the monthly subscription making the application 100% free.

Now data sharing and the ability for businesses to contact users seem to be the new way Facebook intends to monetize 1 billion WhatsApp users. But to do this, you need data sharing, which is currently suspended.