Facebook to appeal German order on WhatsApp data

Under fire: German authorities say Facebook is infringing data protection law and had not obtained effective approval from WhatsApp's 35 million users in the country.

Facebook said it would appeal against an order by a German privacy regulator to stop collecting and storing data of German users of its messaging app WhatsApp and to delete all data that has already been forwarded to it.

The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information said Facebook was infringing data protection law and had not obtained effective approval from WhatsApp's 35 million users in Germany.