Facebook can be fined by the European Commission for the illegal use of WhatsApp users data

Having promised not to drain WhatsApp and Facebook users, the leadership of the social network simply mislead the EU.

The Evpropeysk Antimonopoly Office dissatisfied with the Facebook acquired the WhatsApp messenger, providing far incomplete data on the terms of the transaction, thereby simply misleading the European Commission. Facebook informed the regulators in August 2014 that the social network will not be able to conduct an “automatic association of accounts of users of two services” to place suspicions of gaining competitive advantages. Now it has become known that the combination of users accounts could be technically carried out in 2014 and the leadership of the social network deliberately or inconspicuously confirmed false information, violating the legislation of the EU.

At that time, Europe gave the go -ahead without any fluctuations, but Facebook made this summer about the exchange of information about WhatsApp users with other services, primarily with social networks, immediately caused a stream of complaints from both users and competitors. In particular, Facebook can now use the WhatsApp user phone number: this will give advertisers the opportunity to configure their advertising better. WhatsApp users numbers will become part of the existing Facebook database, which the company (anonymously) is divided with advertisers. WhatsApp itself reported that in the case of combining the WhatsApp number with the base of the social network, Facebook will be able to "offer more accurate recommendations of friends and showing the relevant ads." At the same time, the WhatsApp user could refuse to combine his data with the Facebook profile within 30 days from the beginning of the combination of the database.

The representative of Facebook assures that the company has complied with all the conditions in the process of approving the transaction by the European Commission. This will be confirmed by the facts that the company will provide in the near future. The European Commission clearly made it clear that it did not plan to cancel its decision to approve the transaction, but if the regulator recognizes Facebook by the offender, the company can be fined by 1% of its global revenue in 2014 - this is about $ 125 million.

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