WhatsApp faced the biggest fine ever handed out by the Irish Data Protection Commission, and also second-highest under European Union GDPR rules and regulations.
The European headquarter of WhatsApp is in Ireland, and a few years ago WhatsApp has been purchased by Facebook. Therefore, Facebook completely owns WhatsApp like Instagram. Irish regulator is one of the lead authorities that control the tech giant in Europe.
Though, WhatsApp has disagreed with the decision, and the percentage of the fine, and is planning to appeal.
The investigation started back in 2018, about whether WhatsApp had been transparent about how it handles the information available on the platform.
The investigation revolved around technical issues such as WhatsApp information supply to users about the use of their data, and its privacy policies clear enough to understand. Meanwhile, the policies have been updated several times over the years.
WhatsApp spoke person said, ‘’ WhatsApp is committed to providing a secure and private service,’’.
‘’We have worked to ensure the information we provide is comprehensive and transparent and will continue to do so. We disagree with the decision today regarding the transparency we provided to people in 2018 and the penalties are entirely disproportionate.’’
The fine is one of the biggest ever issued by the Commission in Ireland under GDPR rules beating the €400,000 (£344,000) penalty given to Twitter for a security breach.
Meanwhile, the Data Protection Commission said, it was also ordering WhatsApp to take “remedial actions” so that its processing complies with European Union rules.
The Company examined how WhatsApp uses people’s data and also processed it with other Facebook companies. The Irish Watchdog acts as lead, and many other tech companies have their headquarters in Dublin.
Also, the Irish DPC said that under GDPR, a lengthy and comprehensive investigation was conducted, where eight countries also made objections including France, Germany, and Italy. However, some critics disagree with Irish regulation about the specific article of GDPR, and also the calculation of fine, among other issues.
Privacy Campaigner Max Schrems welcomed the decision and said this, ‘’ shows how the DPC is still extremely dysfunctional’’.
‘’The DPC gets about 10,000 complaints per year since 2018- and this is the first major fine,’’ he added.
Since WhatsApp has planned to appeal, ‘’ in the Irish court system, this will mean that we will see years before any fine is paid,’’
Irish DPC also formally asks WhatsApp to ‘’ bring its processing into compliance’’.