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WhatsApp warned by European privacy regulators about sharing data with Facebook, as Merkel slams the bias of digital powerhouses

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

October 29, 2016 | 4 min read

WhatsApp plans to monetise its users may have hit a roadblock after European Union (EU) privacy watchdog chiefs warned it to stop sharing data with parent business Facebook. A rebuke that comes as the German chancellor Angela Merkel compels the EU to investigate whether the likes of Facebook and Google are manipulating search results to influence public opinion.

EU officials warn WhatsApp over data sharing.

WhatsApp has been warned not to share data with Facebook.

​The watchdog group, which is collectively known as the Article 29 Working Party, said they had “serious concerns” about changes made to WhatsApp’s privacy policy, which made the transfer of data possible. Those concerns were put to Facebook in a letter that asked it to pause its efforts until the collective could be sure that no European privacy rules were being broken.

A WhatsApp statement read: “We’re working with data protection authorities to address their questions. We’ve had constructive conversations, including before our update, and we remain committed to respecting applicable law.”

The issue was sparked in August this year, when Whatspp revealed that it would share more information with Facebook, which acquired the messaging app in 2014 for $19bn. Plans to share data between the two businesses brought a wave of criticism down on WhatsApp because of its previous insistence that it would remain independent of Facebook. The mobile messaging app justified its decision to share data by saying it would mean suggestions about who people should connected with would be “more relevant”.

That same principle could be applied to businesses, which WhatsApp may have to turn to in order to make money. WhatsApp dropped its subscription fee at the turn of the year, a move that suggested an influx of ads or branded services was imminent. Despite the anticipation, neither have materialised en mass, though WhatsApp has hinted an alternative way of its users connecting with businesses that revolves around services.

It isn’t just Facebook that’s attracted the ire of EU officials. Yahoo is also going to be discussed by the collective following a hack that stole half a billion of its users’ data and claims that it worked with US intelligence officials. Indeed, one United Nations member claimed that Yahoo’s alleged scanning of emails of hundreds of millions of users at the request of US intelligence raises serious human rights concerns.

Separately, chancellor Merkel is concerned that the world’s biggest internet companies are manipulating people’s opinions via the secretive algorithms they use to serve content to them. The Times reports that Merkel believes this perceived level of control has helped to polarise opinion of the US election, with devout supporters becoming shielded from anything which might challenge their views.

“I am of the opinion that algorithms must be made more transparent so that one can inform oneself as an interested citizen about questions like, ‘What influences my behaviour on the internet and that of others?’” Merkel told a media conference in Munich.

“These algorithms — when they are not transparent — can lead to a distortion of our perception. They narrow our breadth of information.”

Merkel did not name any of the sites in question but did round on social networks for creating echo chambers that are populated with the same opinion. "The big internet platforms, via their algorithms, have become an eye of a needle which diverse media must pass through,” she added.

Such is her concern, that Merkel has reportedly asked Günther Oettinger, Germany’s European commissioner responsible for the EU’s digital agenda, to push for transparency around the algorithms powering the online companies he is set to review. She has also formed a cross-party group in the Bundestag to look at measures in Germany.

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