Apple, Facebook and Google May Be Hurt by New EU Privacy Rules

The European Union is weighing new privacy rules that could impact the monetization efforts by messaging services owned by Facebook (FB) - Get Report , Apple (AAPL) - Get Report and Alphabet's (GOOGL) - Get Report Google.

The platforms would need user consent before tracking conversations to determine what advertisements to display. This may mean fewer targeted ads, something messaging services like WhatsApp, iMessage and Gmail rely on for revenue. WhatsApp is owned by Facebook.

These proposed rules still need to be green-lighted by the European Parliament.