Security News > 2023 > January > WhatsApp Hit with €5.5 Million Fine for Violating Data Protection Laws

The Irish Data Protection Commission on Thursday imposed fresh fines of €5.5 million against Meta's WhatsApp for violating data protection laws when processing users' personal information.

The complaint, filed by privacy non-profit NOYB, alleged that WhatsApp breached the regulation by compelling its users to "Consent to the processing of their personal data for service improvement and security" by "Making the accessibility of its services conditional on users accepting the updated Terms of Service."

"In particular, WhatsApp is encouraged to show how it plans to communicate any future updates to its terms of service, and to do so in a way that consumers can easily understand the implications of such updates and freely decide they want to continue using WhatsApp after these updates," the Commission said in June 2022.

On top of that, WhatsApp has previously attracted scrutiny for taking a U-turn on its data sharing practices with parent company Meta for ad targeting.

The latest penalty comes two weeks after the DPC fined Meta €390 million over its handling of user data for serving personalized ads in Facebook and Instagram, giving the company three months to find a valid legal basis for processing personal data for behavioral advertising.

NOYB, for its part, has written to the European Data Protection Board, stating that the watchdog "Turned a blind eye on the revenue generated from violating the GDPR when calculating its fine," and that "The DPC's maneuver saved Meta almost €4 billion."

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2023/01/whatsapp-hit-with-55-million-fine-for.html