Colombia orders WhatsApp to comply with data protection rules

BOGOTA: Colombia’s top consumer protection watchdog on Wednesday ordered messaging application WhatsApp to take measures to protect users’ personal data, saying it was violating more than half of the regulations governing such information.

The Superintendency of Commerce and Industry said WhatsApp, owned by social network giant Facebook Inc, needed to comply with rules meant to ensure users can know, update and correct information about them held in databases and by companies.

The app is also not meeting 75% of data protection rules in a 2012 law, the regulator said in a statement.