Ask HN: Why did WhatsApp exempt Europe from it's enhanced data sharing?

As per : https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.bbc.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;technology-55573149 and https:&#x2F;&#x2F;faq.whatsapp.com&#x2F;general&#x2F;security-and-privacy&#x2F;how-we-work-with-the-facebook-companies<p>Europe and the UK seem to be exempt from the changes. The key quote from the BBC article seem to be &quot;Facebook says it does not use WhatsApp information for those kind of purposes (i.e. ads, --Ed.) in Europe, because of negotiations with European data protection bodies.&quot;<p>In practice, what does &quot;negotiations&quot; mean in this context ? Are Europeans clearly protected under European data protection laws (with the UK lumped only until the can be technically &#x2F; legally separated once Brexit clears up) or is there a risk that these same changes will be eventually applied here too ?