WhatsApp, Snapchat banned on company devices at Continental

A Continental AG logo sits on top of the company's factory in the Stoecken district of Hanover, Germany, on Wednesday, April 25, 2018. Continental, Europe's second-biggest maker of car parts and the region's No. 2 tire producer, has focused on retooling the components division to keep up with an industry shift to battery-powered vehicles and automated-driving systems. Photographer: Alex Kraus/Bloomberg

German auto parts maker Continental AG said it will forbid its 240,000 employees from using Facebook Inc’s WhatsApp or Snap Inc’s Snapchat on any of its company-issued mobile devices. 

About 36,000 such devices would be affected by the ban, which was provoked by privacy concerns, a Continental spokesman said. The services access a user’s personal and possibly confidential data, such as contacts, and thus the information of third parties that are not involved, the company said in a statement June 5.