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Privacy Groups Want to Halt WhatsApp Acquisition
Privacy advocates are asking U.S. courts to stop Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of messaging service
WhatsApp until users get a better understanding of how the former intends to use the personal data of WhatsApp’s 450 million users.
WhatsApp, a service that allows mobile phone users to send each other messages, has long been committed to not collecting user data for advertising purposes. Now critics argue that there’s no guarantee that that commitment will hold once the service becomes part of Facebook. The complainants asks regulators to investigate the deal “specifically with regard to the ability of Facebook to access WhatsApp’s store of user mobile phone numbers and metadata.”
Facebook, the world’s No.1 social network with 1.2 billion users, generates the majority of its revenue by showing ads that target users by age, gender and other traits.
A spokesperson for Facebook confirmed that it will operate as a separate company and will honor its commitments to privacy and security.
More About the WhatsApp Acquisition:
Facebook stunned the technology industry last month when it announced its intention to buy the five-year old WhatsApp for $19 billion in cash and stock. WhatsApp does not show ads on its service, charging some of its users a $1 annual fee to use the service. Facebook also intends to pay $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares and an additional $3 billion in restricted stockunits to be granted to WhatsApp’s founders, Jan Koum, Brian Acton and employees that will vest over four years subsequent to closing.
Software developers now have something to hope for. Their innovations may make it to big world one day and WhatApps is living proof of that.
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