Facebook’s WhatsApp has been slapped with a record €225m fine today following an inquiry into the messaging app’s transparency around sharing personal data with other Facebook companies.
WhatsApp is to appeal the fine arguing that its “entirely disproportionate“. The messaging service confirmed by way of a statement, that the issues relate to policies in place in 2018.
The added: “We disagree with the decision today regarding the transparency we provided to people in 2018 and the penalties are entirely disproportionate,” the spokesperson’s statement said.”
The Data Privacy Commissioner, which is the lead data privacy regulator for Facebook within the European Union, said the issues related to whether WhatsApp conformed in 2018 with EU data rules about transparency.
Ireland’s DPC takes the lead on data privacy for Facebook because the company’s regional headquarters is in Dublin.
Data regulators from eight other European countries triggered a dispute resolution mechanism after Ireland shared its provisional decision in relation to the WhatsApp inquiry, which started in December 2018.
In July, a meeting of the European Data Protection Board issued a “clear instruction that required the DPC to reassess and increase its proposed fine on the basis of a number of factors contained“, the Irish regulator said.
It said “Following this reassessment the DPC has imposed a fine of 225 million euros on WhatsApp“.
The Irish regulator also imposed a reprimand along with an order for WhatsApp to bring its processing into compliance by taking “a range of specified remedial actions“.
DPC announces decision in WhatsApp inquiryhttps://t.co/bo3LZZjunX pic.twitter.com/YgwuB8tetR
— Data Protection Commission Ireland (@DPCIreland) September 2, 2021
