Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Data Protection

Argentina Orders Facebook to Suspend WhatsApp Data Sharing

Argentina has ordered Facebook to suspend its data use policy allowing it to collect information from users of its WhatsApp messaging app, the government announced on Monday.

The suspension will last at least six months and aims to prevent “the abuse of a dominant position,” said a resolution published in the official bulletin.

Argentina has ordered Facebook to suspend its data use policy allowing it to collect information from users of its WhatsApp messaging app, the government announced on Monday.

The suspension will last at least six months and aims to prevent “the abuse of a dominant position,” said a resolution published in the official bulletin.

In the meantime, the national agency that protects personal data and access to public information will lead an investigation into Facebook’s plans.

The tech giant informed WhatsApp users earlier this year that they had to consent to a new data-use policy to continue using the messaging service.

According to the Secretary of Internal Trade, 76 percent of mobile phones in Argentina use WhatsApp.

It said the suspension was necessary as the parent company “enjoys a dominant position in the market through its social media: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.”

The government body added that the data sharing would give Facebook access to user information “at a level that other companies cannot replicate.”

The suspension was necessary, it said, due to the “huge asymmetry between the users and WhatsApp” that would force the majority of individuals to accept the new conditions, allowing the messaging app to “collect excessive personal details” to share with other applications in the Facebook group.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

It expressed concern for the potential to exploit users and exclude competitors, and said ultimately that could affect “general economic interests.”

Argentina is not the only country to crack down on Facebook’s attempt to share users’ data between its various apps as the United States, India, Brazil and Germany have also take similar measures.

Related: Germany Halts Facebook Sharing WhatsApp Data

Related: WhatsApp Delays Enforcing New Privacy Terms

Related: South Africa Opposes WhatsApp-Facebook Data Sharing

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join the session as we discuss the challenges and best practices for cybersecurity leaders managing cloud identities.

Register

SecurityWeek’s Ransomware Resilience and Recovery Summit helps businesses to plan, prepare, and recover from a ransomware incident.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Application Security

Cycode, a startup that provides solutions for protecting software source code, emerged from stealth mode on Tuesday with $4.6 million in seed funding.

Data Protection

The cryptopocalypse is the point at which quantum computing becomes powerful enough to use Shor’s algorithm to crack PKI encryption.

CISO Strategy

SecurityWeek spoke with more than 300 cybersecurity experts to see what is bubbling beneath the surface, and examine how those evolving threats will present...

CISO Conversations

Joanna Burkey, CISO at HP, and Kevin Cross, CISO at Dell, discuss how the role of a CISO is different for a multinational corporation...

Artificial Intelligence

The CRYSTALS-Kyber public-key encryption and key encapsulation mechanism recommended by NIST for post-quantum cryptography has been broken using AI combined with side channel attacks.

CISO Conversations

In this issue of CISO Conversations we talk to two CISOs about solving the CISO/CIO conflict by combining the roles under one person.

CISO Strategy

Security professionals understand the need for resilience in their company’s security posture, but often fail to build their own psychological resilience to stress.