Report: WhatsApp contravenes international privacy law

WhatsApp uploads all contacts without users’ permission WhatsApp, which allows text messaging over the Internet without incurring SMS messaging charges, is in violation of Canadian and Dutch privacy laws, officials have announced .Canada's privacy watchdog, in a joint investigation with Dutch authorities, determined the popular mobile messaging application breaches Canadian and Dutch privacy laws by forcing many of its users to grant access to their entire address book to use it, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News reported on Monday.
"The address book contains phone numbers of both [WhatsApp] users and non-users," Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, said in a statement.
"This lack of choice contravenes privacy law," Kohnstamm added.
WhatsApp Inc, based in California, has changed the iPhone version of the app to allow users to add contacts manually instead of uploading their entire address book.
However, users of the Android, BlackBerry and Windows version of the app do not have that option.
Canada's Office of the Privacy Commissioner began investigating WhatsApp in January 2012, saying it had "reasonable grounds" to believe the company was "collecting, using, disclosing and retaining personal information" in a manner that contravened Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.
WhatsApp Inc has said it is committed to fixing the problem on all platforms but has not said when, the report said.

Source: UPI