Facebook has no intention of scooping up WhatsApp user data and selling it to the highest bidder, both companies have promised -- but privacy advocates are viewing those good intentions with jaundiced eyes. If the $19 billion dollar deal ends up going through, Facebook is pretty much going to have to compromise WhatsApp user data if it ever wants to see a return on that hefty investment.
The consumer privacy backlash stirred up by Facebook's recent deal to purchase WhatsApp for US$19 billion is now in full swing.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy jointly filed a complaint about the deal with the United States Federal Trade Commission.
Following the announcement of the agreement, both companies offered reassurances that WhatsApp user data would be safe from Facebook. However, those promises may not mean anything, given Facebook's history of privacy violations and its vacuuming up of user data from firms it has bought, the groups argue in their complaint.
"During the course of an FTC investigation, we would like to see Facebook or WhatsApp or both institute some form of binding mechanism that insulates WhatsApp users' data from Facebook," Julia Horwitz, consumer protection counsel at EPIC, told the E-Commerce Times.
However, that might be a problem, because "even if all the 450 million WhatsApp users pay 99 (US) cents a year for the service, when you factor in the time value of money, there's no way in hell you're going to make a return on that investment over 10 years," remarked Mukul Krishna, digital media senior global director at Frost & Sullivan.
In essence, these are the facts presented in the complaint: WhatsApp has a strong commitment to privacy, which it reiterated after the deal was announced; it impacts 450 million people; the Dutch and Canadian authorities in January raised concerns about WhatsApp's data and privacy policies; Facebook collects and stores virtually all user data with or without users' consent, and routinely incorporates data from companies it acquires; and many WhatsApp users object to the purchase.
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