WhatsApp data sharing with Facebook must be stopped until it can be proved legal, European Union warns

European privacy experts have sent letters to WhatsApp telling it to stop sharing people's data with Facebook. WhatsApp announced in recent weeks that it would start handing over information about the people who use it to Facebook, so that its parent company could use that data to better target ads. But the company didn't give a very easy way of opting out of it, and the deal has drawn the attention of customers and regulators. Now EU privacy watchdogs have told WhatsApp and Facebook that the deal must be stopped until it can be checked whether it is legal or not. Presumably if the deal is found to be illegal then it will be forced to stop.