Turkey Investigates Facebook, WhatsApp Data Collection

Turkey’s antitrust board opned on Monday, an investigation with Facebook and its messaging service WhatsApp, after the messaging app forced users to either agree to let Facebook collect user data including phone numbers and locations or have their accounts deleted., according to Bloomberg report.

Meanwhile, the Competition Board reported it ruled that the requirement to allow the collection of that data should be suspended until the probe is complete. Even if users accepted rules, due to the potential for irreparable losses, until the conclusion of the investigation.

Turkey Opens Investigation Against Facebook

In contrast, Facebook too must suspend data sharing and announce its move to all users, the Competition Board statement reported.

So that, the Turkish Presidency's Communications Office and the country's defence ministry are also moving their chat groups from WhatsApp to a locally-developed messaging app BiP. On other hand, WhatsApp updated its terms of service last Wednesday, allowing Facebook and its subsidiaries to collect user data. The deadline for agreeing to the new terms is February 8.

Also, the Rival messaging apps Signal and Telegram have since seen a sudden increase in demand.

Signal Foundation, the organization that powers the end-to-end encryption technology in Whats Messenger and Facebook Messenger, offers its very own messaging app dubbed Signal Private Messenger. Signal brings a number of security benefits when compared to WhatsApp. It offers self-destructing messages and screen security.