Turkey announces probe into Facebook-WhatsApp data sharing

The Turkish Competition Authority on Monday launched an investigation into Facebook’s move to collect more of WhatsApp users’ data, reported AFP.

Changing the privacy policy, the encrypted messaging app last week asked more than a billion of its users outside the European Union and Britain to accept the new terms and conditions or lose access to the platform on February 8.

Several Turkish state organisations, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s media office, switched to Turkcell telecom’s new messaging service BiP in response.

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Notably, it is still unclear how WhatsApp’s suspension could be enforced and Facebook issued no immediate comment.

Technology experts note that WhatsApp’s new requirement of its users makes legally binding a policy that has been widely in use since 2016.

Facebook ultimately aims to monetise WhatsApp by allowing businesses to contact clients via the platform.

WhatsApp’s announcement has led some security-conscious users to switch to messaging services such as Signal, founded by American businessmen Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton and Telegram, founded by the Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov.

Turkish company BiP said on Sunday that it had gained two million users in the preceding 48-hour span.