Apparently, it seems that these tech multinationals are violating data protection law and the implications of that are enormous. Having access to someone’s personal information is not just a joke. I just think this not funny and it’s an absolute breach.
Maybe you don’t understand; let’s just imagine Facebook having access to the Banki Moon or Bill Gates’ private chats on WhatsApp. That’s how bad it is. Such violation not mean anything to some people; on the contrary, it means a lot.
As if that wasn’t enough, Multinational search engine company, Google officially launched its latest Messaging App known Allo. Ever since this App was launched, there have reports that Google has a way of storing up ones’ messages.
The primary carrier of this message has been the American computer professional, Edward Snowden. “What is #Allo? A Google app that records every message you ever send and makes it available to police upon request”, he had tweeted.
On the contrary, Google had earlier claimed it would include end-to-end encryption, “storing messages transiently and in non-identifiable form,” similar to its prospective primary competitor, WhatsApp. However, the company announced drastic anti-privacy changes the very day it rolled out the app.
“Anyone thinking it would be difficult for police or, say, the Department of Homeland Security, or National Security Agency to get their hands on these communications should think otherwise,” Edward also tweeted.
Is this not crazy? Although, Google in response had said Allo users can still delete their messages as long as they want.
Suggested Read: You Can Stop Facebook From Sharing Your WhatsApp data
However, a country like Germany is not finding the Facebook thing funny. A German privacy regulator recently ordered Facebook to stop collecting and storing data of German users of its messaging app WhatsApp and to delete all data that has already been forwarded to it.
It seems other countries can make this happen or better still borrow a leave from Germany. What were Mark and his team trying to achieve to make by sharing users data? “Facebook was infringing data protection law and had not obtained valid approval from WhatsApp’s 35 million users in Germany.
“After the acquisition of WhatsApp by Facebook two years ago, both parties have publicly assured that data will not be shared between them,” Germany had said in a statement.
Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, bought WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock to reach a younger audience. Moreover, Facebook and WhatsApp were independent companies that should process their users’ data based on their terms and conditions and data privacy policies.
“The fact that this is now happening is not only a misleading of their users and the public but also constitutes an infringement of national data protection law,” Caspar, the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, said.
Reuters reported that Facebook, which has its German headquarters in Hamburg and therefore “falls under Caspar’s jurisdiction, expressed in a statement that it, complied with EU data protection law.”
“We are open to working with the Hamburg DPA to address their questions and resolve any concerns,” it said.
The Hamburg commissioner’s move comes after EU and U.S. regulators stated that they would scrutinize changes to privacy settings that WhatsApp made in August.
“The fact that this is now happening is not only a misleading of their users and the public but also constitutes an infringement of national data protection law”
