WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum leaves Facebook amid data privacy debate

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum, who sold his messaging app to Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion, is leaving the company over a purported disagreement on Facebook’s data privacy practices and business strategy for the app.

Koum announced his departure Monday in a post on his personal Facebook page. He did not address any dispute with company officials, which was first reported by The Washington Post. Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp remains the company’s costliest acquisition to date. Brian Acton, Koum’s co-founder at WhatsApp, left Facebook last September to pursue other ventures.

“It's been almost a decade since Brian and I started WhatsApp, and it's been an amazing journey with some of the best people,” Koum said. “But it is time for me to move on. I've been blessed to work with such an incredibly small team and see how a crazy amount of focus can produce an app used by so many people all over the world.”

Koum added he will take time off “to do things I enjoy outside of technology.”

The Washington Post reported earlier Monday that Koum was planning to exit Whatsapp, which has 1.5 billion monthly users, as well as Facebook’s board of directors because of disagreements “over the popular messaging service’s strategy and Facebook’s attempts to use its personal data and weaken its encryption.” Facebook eliminated WhatsApp $0.99 and sought to remove encryption that scrambled personal messages.

Facebook has drawn federal and public scrutiny in recent days after multiple news outlets reported a British firm had improperly accessed the personal data of up to 87 million users.

Facebook did not address the reasons for Koum’s departure from the company.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wished Koum well in a comment on his post.

“Jan: I will miss working so closely with you,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I'm grateful for everything you've done to help connect the world, and for everything you've taught me, including about encryption and its ability to take power from centralized systems and put it back in people's hands. Those values will always be at the heart of WhatsApp.”