Key findings and outcomes The investigation focused on
WhatsApp’s popular mobile messaging platform, which allows users
to send and receive instant messages over the Internet across
various mobile platforms. While WhatsApp was found to be in
contravention of Canadian and Dutch privacy laws, the
organization has taken steps to implement many recommendations
to make its product safer from a privacy standpoint. At this
time however, outstanding issues remain to be fully addressed.
The investigation revealed that WhatsApp was violating certain
internationally accepted privacy principles, mainly in relation
to the retention, safeguard, and disclosure of personal data.
For example: - In order to facilitate contact between
application users, WhatsApp relies on a user’s address book to
populate subscribers’ WhatsApp contacts list. Once users consent
to the use of their address book, all phone numbers from the
mobile device are transmitted to WhatsApp to assist in the
identification of other WhatsApp users. Rather tha