EU watchdog rejects call to ban Facebook from processing WhatsApp user data

FILE PHOTO: The Facebook logo is displayed on a mobile phone in this picture illustration taken December 2, 2019. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Illustration/File Photo

DUBLIN (Reuters) -A European Union privacy watchdog rejected a call by Germany's lead data protection regulator for an EU-wide ban on Facebook's (FB.O) processing of personal data from its WhatsApp subsidiary, but told the social network's lead EU regulator in Ireland to investigate.

The regulator in the city-state of Hamburg announced in May that it was banning the social network from processing personal data from WhatsApp users because it views the messaging app's new terms of use as illegal.