WhatsApp and Yahoo in hot water with EU privacy watchdog

Watchdog slams WhatsApp over its data sharing with Facebook, and Yahoo over its 2014 breach

The EU Privacy watchdogs have warned WhatsApp over its information sharing with parent company Facebook, and Yahoo over its 2014 data breach.

The watchdogs, collectively known as the Article 29 Working Party, which has had a hand in the formation of the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation, said it has grave concerns over WhatsApp's latest privacy policy in which the messaging service admits it would share users' phone numbers with Facebook.

This is the first privacy policy change since Facebook bought WhatsApp in February 2014.

In a letter sent to the firm, the authorities "requested WhatsApp to communicate all relevant information to the Working Party as soon as possible and urged the company to pause the sharing of users' data until the appropriate legal protections could be assured."

The Working Party also wrote to troubled former internet giant Yahoo over a large data breach which exposed the personal details of 500 million users. It also transpired at the time that Yahoo was scanning its users' incoming emails for data requested by US intelligence agencies.

"Yahoo was invited to provide information on the legal basis and the compatibility with EU law of any such activity," the Working Party said in a statement.

Both firms are also set to answer to new UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham. In her first speech after taking the role, Denham said that the ICO would be questioning Yahoo about its catastrophic data breach, and is looking to probe WhatsApp and other Facebook-owned companies over how they share data with one another.

Both cases will come before EU regulators in November 2016.