German watchdog bans Facebook from processing WhatsApp data

Facebook owns WhatsApp (Patrick Sison/AP)

A German privacy watchdog has banned Facebook from gathering data on users of its WhatsApp chat app, citing an update to its privacy policy that it said breaches stringent European data protection rules.

Hamburg’s data protection commissioner Johannes Caspar said he issued an emergency three-month order prohibiting the social network from processing WhatsApp personal data for its own purposes.