On May 11, Germany’s data regulator in Hamburg banned Facebook from collecting user data from WhatsApp messaging accounts for three months and referred the case to the European Union’s watchdog.
German authorities believe that an update of the privacy policy on WhatsApp may violate European regulations on user data protection, the large-scale collection of users’ records could be exploited. to another purpose. However, Facebook ignored this ruling and announced it would appeal.
Johannes Caspar, head of data protection in Hamburg, the city where Facebook is based in Germany, said: “The aforementioned ban is intended to protect the rights and freedoms of millions of users in Germany, who are have agreed to the terms of use (app). It is very important to prevent damage and disadvantages associated with such a black box process.” Germany also urged the European Union to apply a similar ban in 27 member states. 
WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion WhatsApp users around the world have been asked to agree to the new rules and conditions by May 15. Facebook, which has 60 million users in Germany, is encouraging its 1.5 billion users globally to update the WhatsApp app as soon as possible. WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion and now competes with other messaging rivals such as Signal and Telegram, both of which claim to have a higher level of personal data protection than WhatsApp. Since the beginning of this year, when running the WhatsApp software, a window will automatically pop up. The first page says that WhatsApp is updating its terms of use and data protection regulations, which states that WhatsApp cannot read or listen to chats because they are encrypted, WhatsApp is adjusting the chat business is simpler. The second page says that WhatsApp is updating its terms of use and data protection policy, asserting that WhatsApp does not change the privacy of private chats, but adds information on how to chat with businesses. business as desired and how the business can manage user chats. At the bottom of page 2 there is only the “agree” button and the user cannot do otherwise. If you do not agree to the new update, starting May 15, the use of WhatsApp may experience problems, such as not being able to receive or send messages, even if the account is not deleted or disabled. In short, WhatsApp requires users to agree to their new policy to be able to continue using the service after May 15, in which the update will allow more information to be shared from WhatsApp with Facebook. and other apps like Instagram and Messenger (such as contacts and profile data), except for encrypted chat content. Responding to the German ban, a WhatsApp spokesperson asserted that the ban was imposed without a legitimate basis and was based on a “fundamental misunderstanding” about the purpose and effect of the update. Therefore, the ban will not affect the continued rollout of the update.
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