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Facebook Grilled by EU’s Vestager Over WhatsApp Merger U-Turn
- EU is asking questions about Facebook-WhatsApp data policies
- Facebook won EU merger approval in 2014 for messaging app bid
European Union Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager.
Photographer: Thierry Charlier/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Fresh from battles with Apple Inc. and Google, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is quizzing Facebook Inc. about a U-turn over its use of WhatsApp customer data just two years after EU watchdogs cleared the $19 billion takeover with no strings attached.
Vestager said officials were now "asking some follow-up questions" about privacy-policy changes announced last month that will allow advertising on the Facebook social network and Instagram photo-sharing site draw on data from WhatsApp. The EU cleared Facebook’s WhatsApp acquisition in October 2014.