Civil groups want EU lawmakers to boost privacy rights in planned WhatsApp, Skype rules

Amnesty International, Privacy International and 28 other civil and human rights groups on Wednesday urged EU lawmakers to take a strong stand on privacy rights in proposed rules governing Facebook’s WhatsApp and Microsoft’s Skype.

The call by the group in a letter to the European Parliament, whose members are spread out across Europe, is in response to what they said are attempts by EU countries to weaken privacy rights.

EU countries in February agreed to a joint position in forthcoming negotiations with EU lawmakers and the European Commission on an ePrivacy Regulation that would subject WhatsApp and Skype to the same rules as telecoms providers and restrict the tracking of users in order to provide personalised ads.