WhatsApp Has Been Hit By a Massive $267 Million Fine for Breaking Privacy Laws

Credits: Unsplash/Christian Wiediger

Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp has merely been hitting by a massive fine. EU regulators have asked the company to pay €225 million (~$267 million) for breaking the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws.

The fine imposed on WhatsApp comes courtesy of Republic of ireland'due south Data Protection Committee (DPC), the lead privacy regulator for Facebook in the Eu region. In a detailed summary describing its order, the DPC stated that the messaging service failed to give plenty information to its users about how the company shares information with Facebook and its related companies.

WhatsApp Finds Itself in Trouble All Over again

WhatsApp has been ordered to update its privacy policy to ensure that users are clear almost information sharing practices. The Irish regulator has also reprimanded the visitor and asked information technology to take "a range of remedial actions."

The initial fine on WhatsApp was around €50 million (~$59 meg). Nevertheless, information technology was later changed to €225 million after other data protection agencies sought heftier penalties. Meanwhile, the messaging service has gone ahead and called this fine "entirely disproportionate."

Speaking to the Verge, a WhatsApp spokesperson said the following.

WhatsApp is committed to providing a secure and private service. We have worked to ensure the information we provide is transparent and comprehensive and will proceed to do and then.

WhatsApp is planning to appeal the DPC's determination, and the case is expected to exist before the Irish courts in the coming years.

This is certainly not the beginning time WhatsApp has run into legal troubles. Ever since their revised privacy policy, which will soon be optional, the company has been finding itself in hot waters in one mode or another, and this is just some other brick in the wall.

However, such a massive fine on WhatsApp is not something that nosotros saw coming, but clearly, this has been brewing for some time at present. Permit's see how the service handles the fine, and how this situation goes forward.