WhatsApp-ening to Your Privacy and Security on Facebook? --- As PCMag.com reported earlier, Facebook plans to acquire WhatsApp, a mobile messaging service with about 450 million users, for $12 billion in Facebook stock, $4 billion in cash, and $3 billion in stock options. Now, consider that Facebook doesn't have the greatest track record regarding user privacy, and WhatsApp had its own share of security stumbles over the past year. So while the Facebook-WhatsApp deal is a cool $19 billion for the company's founders and employees, it means a whole lot of privacy headaches for the rest of us. -- Why Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants WhatsApp is no mystery. Facebook is struggling in the mobile market, especially outside the United States. Buying WhatsApp lets Facebook dominate that space, especially as Google, Apple, and other companies flex their muscles to try to take over the mobile world. We don't know yet what Facebook will do with WhatsApp, but we do know the company is always pushing the privacy boundaries. -- Dutch and Canadian data protection authorities have accused WhatsApp of violating international privacy laws. The problem was that WhatsApp was harvesting personal contact details from contact lists of its users, even of those who weren't WhatsApp users. Even though WhatsApp appears to be cleaning up its act, we all—not just WhatsApp users—should be seriously concerned. - More, Fahmida Y. Rashid, at: http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/social-networking/320887-whatsapp-ening-to-your-privacy-and-security-on-facebook