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US: Facebook’s WhatsApp buy meets resistance

By  |  March 7, 2014

The Federal Trade Commission has been asked to place a hold on Facebook’s planned $19 billion acquisition of mobile messenger app WhatsApp, say reports, as consumer advocacy groups call for an investigation into the merger.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy have reportedly asked the FTC to probe the deal on claims of its “unfair and deceptive data collection practices.” The consumer privacy advocates claim Facebook of misusing customer information for advertising purposes and that Facebook “has made it clear that intends to incorporate the data of WhatsApp users into the user profiling business model,” reports said.

WhatsApp has been a popular application for smartphone users as the company does not collects its users’ personal information.

Full Content: The Hindu

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