WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by French authorities

Re:WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by ... by seszett on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @11:52AM (#15961530)

> I now own the database.

You might own the database, but you will never own the personal data that is stored in it. And in France (and in the near future the whole EU with GDPR) this personal data has a specific set of allowed uses (explicit or implicit when the user provided the data) attached to it, that you cannot change without asking the owner of the data (the user).

So you own the database, but you cannot use the personal data inside for purposes that were not allowed by the user when they provided it.

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Re:WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by ... by mikeokner on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @03:04PM (#15963701)

Seems like in that case it should be Facebook being reprimanded if they do something with the data that violates the original terms of use. "Sharing" is a bit misleading because as soon as Facebook acquired WhatsApp, they became the legal owners of the user database and data insofar as anyone can "own" user data. WhatsApp is Facebook.

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Re:WhatsApp told to stop sharing user data with Facebook by ... by cbcoutinho on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @03:29PM (#15963944)

But I think that's the point, WhatsApp doesn't own the data, and that carries over to Facebook. From what I gather, what they own is the database schema and whatever business logic is specific to WA/FB, and they 'lease' the data from users to populate their databases.

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