Facebook has extended its ban on using WhatsApp data to the entire European Union. The social networking site had earlier stopped using WhatsApp data for UK consumers. Facebook is expected to work with European regulators to address issues related to the use personal data.

The Article 29 Working Party, a privacy watchdog, had earlier warned WhatsApp about its concerns related to the terms of services of the chat app. WhatsApp had modified its terms to allow for transferring its users' data to Facebook for testing purposes. The data includes profile names, online status, phone number, and photos, among other things.

While WhatsApp has assured users that their messages will be encrypted from end to end, and thus will be unreadable by WhatsApp as well as Facebook staff, the Article 29 Working Party continued to forward its concerns. The Working Party consists of the privacy leaders from 28 member nations of the European Union.

The Working Party had earlier issued an open letter to WhatsApp, stating that "WP29 also questions the effectiveness of control mechanisms offered to users to exercise their rights."

Consequently, WhatsApp has halted sharing some data with the Facebook across the whole of the EU. However, the move is related to the data sharing related to advertisement and products purpose only. The chat app will still send back-end user data to Facebook for administrative purposes.

In a statement sent to the Financial Times, Facebook said that it would continue to cooperate with the UK and other data protection authorities. Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014. However, it started data collection from the app in August this year.