Facebook\u2019s lead data protection regulator in Europe has asked the company for an \u201curgent briefing\u201d regarding plans to integrate the underlying infrastructure of its three social messaging platforms.<\/p>\n
In a statement<\/a> posted to its website late last week the Irish Data Protection Commission writes: \u201cPrevious proposals to share data between Facebook companies have given rise to significant data protection concerns and the Irish DPC will be seeking early assurances that all such concerns will be fully taken into account by Facebook in further developing this proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week the New York Times<\/a> broke the news that Facebook intends to unify the backend<\/a>\u00a0infrastructure of its three separate products, couching it as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg asserting control over acquisitions whose founders have since left the building.<\/p>\n Instagram <\/a> founders,\u00a0Kevin Systrom\u00a0and Mike Krieger, left Facebook last year, as a result of rising tensions over reduced independence<\/a>, according to our sources.<\/p>\n While WhatsApp\u2019s <\/a> founders left Facebook earlier, with Brian Acton departing in late 2017<\/a> and Jan Koum sticking it out until spring 2018<\/a>. The pair reportedly clashed with Facebook execs over user privacy and differences over how to monetize the end-to-end encrypted platform.<\/p>\n Acton later said<\/a> Facebook had coached him to tell European regulators assessing whether to approve the 2014 merger that it would be \u201creally difficult\u201d for the company to combine WhatsApp and Facebook user data.<\/p>\n In the event, Facebook went on to link accounts across the two platforms just\u00a0two years after<\/a>\u00a0the acquisition closed. It was later hit with\u00a0a $122M penalty<\/a> from the European Commission for providing \u201cincorrect or misleading\u201d information at the time of the merger.\u00a0Though Facebook claimed it had made unintentional \u201cerrors\u201d in the 2014 filing.<\/p>\n A further couple of years on and Facebook has now graduated to seeking full platform unification of separate messaging products.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to build the best messaging experiences we can; and people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private,\u201d a spokesperson told us when we asked for a response to the NYT report. \u201cWe\u2019re working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs you would expect, there is a lot of discussion and debate as we begin the long process of figuring out all the details of how this will work,\u201d the spokesperson added, confirming the substance of the NYT report.<\/p>\n There certainly would be a lot of detail to be worked out. Not least the feasibility of legally merging user data across distinct products in Europe, where a controversial\u00a02016 privacy u-turn<\/a>\u00a0by WhatsApp \u2014 when it suddenly announced it would after all share user data with parent company Facebook (despite previously saying it would never do so), including sharing data for marketing purposes \u2014 triggered swift regulatory intervention.<\/p>\n Facebook was forced to\u00a0suspend marketing-related data flows <\/a>in Europe. Though it has continued sharing data between WhatsApp and Facebook for security and business intelligence purposes, leading to the French data watchdog to issue a formal notice at the end of 2017<\/a> warning the latter transfers also lack a legal basis.<\/p>\n A court in Hamburg, Germany, also officially banned Facebook from using WhatsApp user data for its own purposes.<\/p>\n