The EU is looking into Facebook’s proposed buyout of software firm Kustomer, after Ireland and nine other countries expressed competition concerns. The US-based firm makes ‘chatbot’ software to help companies and customer service agents interact with their consumers. The ICCL has also asked both companies whether data acquired by Kustomer will be processed by Facebook or any of its other companies, suchas Messenger, WhatsApp or Instagram. Kustomer CEO and co-founder Brad Birnbaum said at the time that he was looking forward to “enhancing the messaging experience” as part of the “Facebook family”. Facebook also said at the time that it would not automatically use Kustomer data to tailor advertising but that Kustomer’s businesses would “have the option” to use their data for their own marketing.

Source: Irish Independent May 13, 2021 01:30 UTC