France orders WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with Facebook without consent

France orders WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with Facebook Without consent
Messaging app has one month to comply or it will face sanctions for sharing user phone numbers and usage data for ‘business intelligence’ purposes

French data protection agency CNIL said WhatsApp did not have a legal basis to share user data under French law. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian

WhatsApp has been ordered to stop sharing user data with parent company Facebook or face sanctions.

The French data protection agency, Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), said on Monday that WhatsApp did not have a legal basis to share user data under French law for “business intelligence” purposes. The messaging app must cease data sharing within a month, paying particular attention to obtaining users’ consent. 

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The watchdog said WhatsApp had violated its obligation to cooperate with CNIL and had not properly obtained users’ consent to begin sharing their phone numbers with Facebook.

“The only way to refuse the data transfer for ‘business intelligence’ purpose is to uninstall the application,” the CNIL said in a statement.

CNIL said that it considers the transfer of some data for security purposes to be legal, but that the sharing of non-essential information to improve the function of the app was not as users were not given the possibility to opt out.