Facebook halts use of WhatsApp data for advertising in Europe

Social network's decision comes as privacy watchdogs express serious concerns over its use of messaging app's data

Following its pausing of the use of WhatsApp data in the UK, Facebook has stopped using data taken from its messaging service for advertising across Europe.

The social network had come under pressure from the pan-European data protection agency group, the Article 29 Working Party in October. The group of privacy watchdogs said it had serious concerns over Facebook's use of the data, including user phone numbers. It asked the social network to pause its WhatsApp data collection.