WhatsApp was fined 225 million euros for not saying it was exchanging data with Facebook

The sanction comes from the Irish Privacy Guarantor for violation of the GDPR. But for digital rights activist Max Schrems it's not enough

London, UK - July 19, 2018: The buttons of Whatsapp, Messenger, Telegram, Pinterest Whatsapp and Telegram (Getty Images) WhatsApp was fined 225 million euros from the Irish Data Protection Authority. The fine was imposed following an investigation into the transparency of the messaging app, owned by Facebook, relating to the sharing of users' personal data with other companies of the tech giant of Menlo Park.

According to the authority Irish, WhatsApp would not have informed its users about the exchange of personal data between the app and other Facebook companies, violating the European data protection provisions of 2018, sanctioned by the GDPR (the general regulation for the protection of personal data of the Union). For this reason, the Guarantor has established that WhatsApp will have to pay a fine of 225 million euros and take appropriate measures to solve the problem, conforming to the rules of the GDPR. The spokespersons of the app have contested the decision, reports the Reuters agency, defining the fine as "completely disproportionate" and announcing the appeal.

The ruling of the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) came after many criticism of his inaction towards the tech giants. In fact, last April, the European Center for Digital Rights Noyb reported that in a year only 7 complaints out of 10 thousand, presented to the Irish Guarantor, had resulted in a decision. While all the others ended up in the archive. The same investigation into WhatsApp, which led to the € 225 million fine, began in 2018 and the decision came only following a reminder made last July by the European Data Protection Council.

The comment of the activist Schrems

Max Schrems, Austrian lawyer for digital rights and founder of Noyb, who contributed with some fundamental causes to the strengthening of European rules on the protection of personal data targeting Facebook.

Schrems commented on the Irish supervisor's ruling, stressing that this decision only affects one of the thousands of warnings that the authority receives every year. "We welcome the first decision of the Irish regulator - said Schrems - however, the DPC had initially proposed a fine of only 50 million euros and only after being forced by the European authorities raised it to 225 million, which in any case they represent only 0.08% of the turnover of the Facebook group. While the GDPR provides for fines of up to 4% of turnover ". For Schrems the Irish authority is still not working at its best and the activist invites to wait for the result of the appeal before singing victory.


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Topics

Europe Facebook Gdpr Privacy WhatsApp globalData.fldTopic = "Europe, Facebook, Gdpr, Privacy, WhatsApp "

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