WhatsApp Founder to Depart Facebook Amid Privacy, Encryption Dispute

Jan Koum, the founder of WhatsApp who sold his private messaging app to Facebook four years ago for $19 billion, reportedly plans to step down in the wake of increasing concerns over the parent company's intentions for its user data as well efforts to weaken its encryption.

The Washington Post today reported that Koum also will leave his post on Facebook's board of directors. Koum later wrote in a Facebook post that it "is time for me to move on," but did not provide a timeline for his departures or any details.

According to The Post, the recent news of Cambridge Analytica's abuse of Facebook users' data exacerbated Koum's discontent with how Facebook handles user data, given WhatsApp's promise to its users that it would continue to emphasize and protect their privacy and data in the aftermath of the acquisition by Facebook.

Read more here.