CNIL orders WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with Facebook

France's watchdog Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertes (CNIL) has ordered popular messaging platform, WhatsApp, to stop sharing user data with its parent company Facebook.

According to The Verge, the app has a month to comply with the order.

The query began after WhatsApp added to its terms of service last year that it shares data with Facebook for security measures, and to gather business intelligence.

Upon investigating the claims, CNIL ruled that WhatsApp never told its users it was collecting data for business intelligence and there is no way to opt out of this infringement without uninstalling the app.

That violates "the fundamental freedoms of users," said CNIL.

Earlier, other European regulators have attempted to police Facebook, especially in context to data-sharing.

Germany ordered Facebook to stop collecting data from WhatsApp users in September last year, and in the UK, Facebook agreed to stop collecting WhatsApp user data in November last year.

In May 2017, Facebook was fined USD 122 million by the EU for providing "misleading information" about its acquisition of WhatsApp, when the company claimed that it would be unable to link profiles of users from WhatsApp to Facebook.