WhatsApp banned from processing user data by Germany’s lead data regulator

Facebook recently backtracked from its plans to disable the accounts of users who had not accepted its new privacy policy before the previously stated May 15 deadline, stating that it would disable certain features instead. Now, a German regulator has blocked the company from collecting WhatsApp user data of German users as part of its updated terms of service.

The Hamburg data protection agency (DPA) has now barred Facebook from processing data from users of its subsidiary company WhatsApp’s service, according to Reuters. The country’s highest data protection agency has also termed the company’s new terms of service that it is imposing on users as “illegal”, after investigating the service for around a month.