According to The Register, a couple of interest groups have lodged a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission in their attempts to stop Facebook from acquiring social messaging app WhatsApp. Non-profit groups the Electronic Privacy Information Centre and the Centre for Digital Democracy are reportedly worried about what Facebook's plans are with the personal data of the messaging service's 450 million users.
The UK newspaper said that both privacy advocates are challenging the $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp as the latter is said to have a commitment to not allow the use of its user data for advertising purposes.
The groups had said in their filing with the regulator, "Facebook routinely makes use of user information for advertising purposes and has made clear that it intends to incorporate the data of WhatsApp users into the user profiling business model. The proposed acquisition will therefore violate WhatsApp users' understanding of their exposure to online advertising and constitutes an unfair and deceptive trade practice, subject to investigation by the Federal Trade Commission."
In their filing, The Register said the Electronic Privacy Information Centre and the Centre for Digital Democracy has backed their concerns about the fate of the personal data of WhatsApp by citing social commentaries via their Facebook page named "Please Don't Ruin WhatsApp" and on Twitter, and also reports by journalists who highlighted potential troubling scenarios regarding the use of personal data for corporate gain.
The privacy advocates are seeking an order from the FTC to force the social media network to insulate the personal information of WhatsApp from the application of the former's own data collection practices, The Register said.
"WhatsApp users could not reasonably have anticipated that by selecting a pro-privacy messaging service, they would subject their data to Facebook's data collection practices," the privacy advocates concluded in the filing.
