WhitehatGuru
Date: 3rd September 2021
Severity: High
WhatsApp was penalized with 225 Million Euro fine for not being able to transparently explain on how the personal data of individual is handled. The Irish Data Protection Commission — Silicon Valley’s main privacy watchdog in Europe — said it found violations in the way WhatsApp explained how it processed users’ and non-users’ data, as well as how data was shared between WhatsApp and other Facebook companies.
WhatsApp has been penalized for violation of European Data Protection law (GDPR). A statement was released by WhatsApp spokesperson, “We disagree with the decision today regarding the transparency we provided to people in 2018 and the penalties are entirely disproportionate. We will appeal this decision.”
Please note that this decision was also made basis on the issue raised for the policy changes made by WhatsApp in January.
References: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/9/2/whatsapp-fined-266m-by-eu-privacy-watchdog-over-data-breach & https://www.bloombergquint.com/technology/whatsapp-fined-266-million-over-data-transparency-violations