WhatsApp fined €225m for data breach with Facebook

Courtesy law.com

WhatsApp was heavily criticised earlier this year for making it a prerequisite that users agree to sharing their personal data with Facebook.

The messaging mogul has now been fined €225m for breaking the EU’s data privacy law due to its non-disclosure on how it shared users data with Facebook.

It is the biggest fine of its kind with relation to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Irish data regulator applied a penalty more than four times the level it had initially proposed for WhatsApp after being pressured by other European countries.

The ruling came after Luxembourg fined Amazon a record €746m in July for a breach of GDPR, and Ireland fining Twitter €450,000 in December for not informing regulators about a data leak.

The Irish Data Protection Commission has upward of 24 cases against large technology companies. Amazon have reported they will appeal against its fine.

In this two year investigation, Ireland have ordered WhatsApp to change how its data sharing with Facebook is handled, so it aligns with the GDPR policies set out to protect users and their data.

In July, the European Data Protection Board requested WhatsApp to share its data sharing practices with other affiliated companies to be investigated with ‘a matter of priority’.

WhatsApp has disputed the fine, saying as. company they had complied with transparency regulations since 2018, they spoke of the fines being “entirely disproportionate” and stating they will be appealing against the ruling.