South Africa’s information regulator says WhatsApp cannot share users’ contact information

The changes to WhatsApp’s privacy policy have come under scrutiny globally, with Turkey’s competition board launching an investigation and a legal challenge filed in India. — Reuters

JOHANNESBURG: Facebook Inc cannot share any contact information it collects from WhatsApp users in South Africa with its other properties without first obtaining authorisation from the country’s Information Regulator (IR), the agency said on March 3.

In January, the Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp informed users it was preparing a new privacy policy, under which it could share some data, including location and phone numbers, with Facebook and its other units such as Instagram and Messenger.