data protection EU Law policy WhatsApp
European Privacy Officials Pursue Investigation of WhatsApp & Yahoo
The Article 29 Working Party, an expert group of European privacy officials, is pursuing investigations of WhatsApp and Yahoo. In a letter to Facebook, the Working Party stated that the decision to transfer confidential user data from WhatsApp to Facebook has raised "serious concerns," and urged WhatApp to halt data transfers pending completion of the investigation. Separately, the group urged Yahoo to provide information about the 2014 data breach which compromised 500 million accounts. The Article 29 also pressed the company to explain why it scanned customer emails for US intelligence agencies. EPIC recently filed a complaint with the FTC regarding WhatApp, arguing that it violated a 2014 and agreement and urging the Commission to block the transfer. EPIC has also testified before Congress about the need to adopt data breach legislation and launched the Data Protection 2016 campaign.