Facebook gets nod for WhatsApp acquisition

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has cleared a path for Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp to proceed, but it called on both companies to be mindful of their data collection policies.

According to the web portal bug.hr, before the completion of this acquisition that was announced February, it is necessary to also get approvals from other international regulators from the countries where both companies operate.

However, FTC's green light has not come without a warning and instructions related to the problem sticking out as the most disputable - the protection of user data.

Considering the fact that the user database is actually the most valuable asset of the WhatsApp company and also the biggest reason why Mark Zuckerberg agreed to pay that company as much as USD 19 billion, both Facebook and WhatsApp will have to play by strict rules in that domain.

Among other things, FTC says that Facebook must ask for explicit consent of users for the use of their data for advertising or any other purpose.

Both companies will have to guarantee compliance with the terms of use from before the acquisition, and every non-compliant use of the data about WhatsApp users by Facebook will be deemed a breach of commercial laws.