Whatsapp will not be able to share data from Brazilians

The Court of Justice of São Paulo has banned WhatsApp from sharing users’ personal data with Facebook and Instagram for advertising purposes, all three platforms controlled by Meta. The injunction was issued on Wednesday and responds to a public civil lawsuit filed last month by the Federal Public Ministry and the Consumer Protection Institute.

The bodies allege in the application that WhatsApp violated rights in 2021 by forcing the platform’s users to comply with new rules that allow “abusive collection and sharing of personal data with other group platforms” and despite the messaging app’s new policy provides “discrete and general” information to collect information that can be transferred to Facebook and Instagram.

Meta said in a memo that it “did not expand WhatsApp’s ability to share data with Meta” and that it “will take legal action to avoid any impact on users.” The decision requires WhatsApp to create a mechanism that allows consumers, within three months, to opt out of the privacy policy launched in 2021. If they fail to comply, Meta will have to pay a daily fine of 200,000 riyals.