There is no denying that no one has taken the new privacy policy lightly by WhatsApp; it has raised many concerns regarding privacy among the consumers and the regulators. Even though WhatsApp discussed not taking action against those who do not accept the privacy policy, we figured that the app's functionality would be severely crippled for anyone who refuses to accept this change.

Germany has decided to step in as the country's lead data protection regulator has temporarily banned Facebook from processing personal data from WhatsApp.

Germany Bans Facebook for Collecting Data from WhatsApp Users

As per a report from Reuters, Germany's lead data protection regulator went ahead and opened urgent proceedings against Facebook last month and has now ordered the social network to stop processing personal data from WhatsApp users. The regulator sees the new terms as illegal. The regulator is also invoking the powers that the GDPR has granted to impose a three-month ban on Facebook's data collection practice through WhatsApp. This decision comes in a few days before WhatsApp's May 15th deadline of accepting the new terms.

In addition to that, the Data Protection Authority will also seek an EU-wide ruling at the European Data Protection board.

On the other hand, WhatsApp is still suggesting that the action was taken by the data protection authority "rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose and effect of its update, and therefore had no legitimate basis.” Additionally, WhatsApp still plans on going ahead with the update of the new policies and claims that the claims made by Data Protection Authorities are wrong.

This is not the first time Facebook is in hot waters on their new privacy policy, and clearly not the last one. As far as how far this battle goes, we are yet to uncover.