The stock of Facebook, Inc (NASDAQ:FB) closed at $179.51 losing 0.72% in yesterday’s trading session. France’s data privacy watchdog has said that it will be making good its threats to sue messaging app WhatsApp incase to fails to comply with its order.
It was on Monday when the French data protection authority disclosed that it had reached out to WhatsApp asking it to comply with the order. It specifically gave it a timeframe of one month to do so. It was firm on its order to get it to obtain users’ consent.
CNIL in its statement said that WhatsApp did not in any way have the right to move ahead and share user data with Facebook. The French authority took offense outlining that it had been in total violation of the cooperation it was supposed show it.
It was back in 2014 when Facebook proceeded to purchase WhatsApp. It was at the point when WhatsApp made the commitment that it would from that point henceforth be sharing its user data with the social media giant. It was a statement that attracted the attention of the European privacy watchdogs who have moved out to show WhatsApp that it needed to obtain the appropriate sort of consent.
The French regulator has exuded confidence in its assertion that WhatsApp did not move through the right channels in its efforts to gain the consent of users towards sharing their data.
The WhatsApp spokesperson opined, “We will continue to work with the CNIL to ensure users understand what information we collect, as well as how it’s used. And we’re committed to resolving the different concerns we’ve heard from European Data Protection Authorities.”
There is a new EU privacy law that is expected to come in play soon and it has been projected that it will be increasing the fines by up to 4 percent of the company’s global turnover. In its statement, CNIL outlined that it had in numerous instances asked WhatsApp to unveil a sample of French users’ data transferred to Facebook. It ended up making excuses that were not adding up.