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Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service was fined nearly $270 million by Irish authorities on Thursday. Not being transparent about how it uses data collected from people on the service, in a situation that represents a major test of its ability to enforce Europe’s landmark data privacy law.
The 265-page decision is the first major decision taken against Facebook under the broad policy of the European Union. General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR, a three-year-old law that many criticize for not being properly implemented. Irish regulators said they were not clear with users about how data is shared with WhatsApp’s main social network and other Facebook features like Instagram.
WhatsApp said it will appeal the decision and set up what is expected to be a lengthy legal battle.
The GDPR was declared the world’s most comprehensive data privacy law when it came into effect, and was promoted as a model for the rest of the world against the data hosting practices of Facebook, Google, and other internet giants. The law, however, resulted in several fines or penalties, and many said it did. did not keep his promise.
Regulators in Ireland are at the center of the debate. By law, companies must be regulated by the countries in which their European headquarters are located. European offices of Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple and many other companies are located in Ireland due to low corporate tax rates and other benefits.
But this put enormous pressure It’s about the Irish Data Protection Commission, an underfunded and highly criticized body tasked with enforcing a new and complex data protection law against some of the world’s largest companies.
In July, MPs in the Irish Parliament issued a scathing report saying that the Irish regulator “failed to adequately protect citizens’ fundamental rights” due to lack of enforcement.
The challenge of enforcing GDPR is being watched closely as European Union officials discuss new regulations for other areas of the tech industry, including stricter antitrust and content moderation policies. Critics argue that the GDPR shows that while the European Union devises strong digital policies, it struggles to put them into good practice.
The €225m fine, a fraction of Facebook’s annual profits, was the largest fine ever imposed by Irish regulators against a tech giant under the law; In December, Ireland fined Twitter 450,000 euros for a data breach. The decision said WhatsApp had failed to meet its “transparency obligations” to publicly disclose how data from users would be used by Facebook for its other services.
The decision requires WhatsApp to update its privacy policy and make other changes to make people more aware of how data will be used.
The WhatsApp case has sparked significant debate among European Union countries about the level of appropriate enforcement under the region’s data protection rules. Officials in other countries in the 27-nation bloc criticized Ireland for not acting more quickly against major tech platforms.
Other countries have forced Ireland to increase the initial proposed fine to just 50m euros. That amount was increased to €225m after other national regulators used a statutory board to co-ordinate the executive and settle disputes to push for a greater penalty.
Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems, who has filed several complaints about Facebook with authorities in Ireland, welcomed Thursday’s decision, but said the fine imposed by the Data Protection Commission was still too small. GDPR allows fines of up to 4 percent of global income. He said there are many other cases pending to be dealt with.
“This shows how the DPC is still highly dysfunctional,” said Mr Schrems, who currently heads a privacy advocacy group. noob.
WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014, criticized Ireland’s decision, saying it made its privacy policy more comprehensive.
“WhatsApp is committed to providing a secure and private service,” WhatsApp spokesperson Joshua Breckman said in a statement. “We have worked and will continue to do so to ensure that the information we provide is transparent and comprehensive. We disagree with today’s decision on the transparency we provided to people in 2018, and the penalties are completely disproportionate.”
Other tech companies have also been targeted under GDPR, but critics say the penalties are relatively minor and unlikely to result in meaningful changes in behavior.
Amazon in July fine Around 750m euros for violations related to advertising practices by Luxembourg’s privacy regulator. in 2019 Google French authorities were fined 50m euros for failing to obtain sufficient permission for the use of certain online advertisements.
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