In the wake of the controversy over privacy violations, the government of Argentina has given a directive to social media giant, Facebook to stop with immediate effect it’s new data policy.
The new data use policy gives Facebook the leverage to harvest information from WhatsApp users, a move that has drawn the ire of the virtual populace.
In an official statement on Monday, the Argentina’s government says the policy suspension will last till at least six months.
According to the statement, the ban was to avert “the abuse of dominant position through its social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp”.
The statement further noted that pending the time of the ban, Argentina’s national agency that is saddled with protection of private user data and access to public information will be conducting a meticulous investigation into the data policy and all Facebook’s apps.
It would be recalled that WhatsApp had earlier in the year announced a new privacy update which caused a lot of consumer outrage as millions of users found it to negate WhatsApp previous stand on protection of consumer information.
The terms of the new policy allow Facebook to access user’s data from the application by knowing their phone number, email address, contacts, location, device ID, user ID, purchase history, product interaction, payment information, advertising data, diagnostic data, customer support among others.
The new update requires that users either agree to the new data-use policy or risk losing total access to the app, a move that sparked global condemnation and outrage.
This made millions of users to start the advocacy for the use of other messenger apps such as Telegram and Signal.
The Argentine government also noted that the “huge asymmetry between the users and WhatsApp” would pave say for the users to have no choice than to accept the flawed policy, which would then make Facebook have too much access to unparalleled volumes of information.
The government also expressed its concerns on Facebook potential to exploit users and exclude competitors, having monopoly over similar interests.
Turkey, Germany, South Africa, Brazil, India and the United States of America are other countries that have made moves against the data sharing move between Facebook and WhatsApp.