Whatsapp has violated the strict data protection regulations of the European Union. (Photo: Shutterstock)
The company has violated the strict data protection regulations of the European Union with regard to the transparency of the transfer of personal data to other Facebook companies. The supervisory authority also instructed the messenger service, which belongs to the Facebook group, to change its data processing. Whatsapp announced legal action against the fine. One does not agree with the decision. The penalty is completely disproportionate.
The Irish privacy advocates had Never before has a fine of this magnitude been imposed. Across Europe, the fine is only exceeded by the penalty imposed by the data protectionists in Luxembourg against Amazon. The Luxembourg authority imposed a fine of 746 million euros on the internet company this summer.
The Irish data protection commission DPC is not only that Lead supervisory authority for Whatsapp in Europe, but also oversees the entire Facebook group. She is also responsible for other US tech giants like Apple, which have their European office in Ireland.
Is the fine late?
In a first reaction, the data protection activist Max Schrems welcomed the decision in Dublin. However, the DPC has received around 10,000 complaints per year since 2018 and has only now imposed a larger fine. Schrems recalled that the Irish had originally only proposed a fine of 50 million euros. “You were forced by the other European data protection authorities to increase the fine to 225 million euros.” Even the 225 million euros still correspond to only 0.08 percent of the turnover of the Facebook group, Schrems emphasized. “The GDPR provides for fines of up to four percent of sales. All of this shows that the Irish Data Protection Authority is still extremely dysfunctional. “
How surprised Whatsapp Ireland was by the authorities’ decision, shows the fact that only 77.5 million euros were set aside on the company’s balance sheet for a possible fine. “We have worked to ensure that the information we provide is and will continue to be transparent and comprehensive,” said a Whatsapp spokesman for the Republic of Ireland’s public broadcaster, RTE. dpa
