April 22, 2024
Articles CyberSecurity Technology

WhatsApp Fined €5.5 Million for Violating Data Protection Laws

The Irish Data Protection Commission imposed fresh fines of €5.5 million against Meta’s WhatsApp for violating data protection laws which was processing users’ personal information.

Main point of focus of the ruling is an update to the messaging platform like whatsapp Terms of Service which was imposed in the days which leads enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation in May 2018 which require users agree to the revised terms in order to continue using the service or risk losing access.

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

Apart from the fine, the messaging application has ordered to bring its operations into compliance within a period of six months.

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According to WhatsApp it’s encrypted but this is only true for the content of chats it is not true for metadata.WhatsApp still knows who you chat with most and at what time. This allows Meta to get a very close understanding of the social life.
“Meta uses this information for advertisement purposes as they get idea of ypur interest and your social life.

WhatsApp notably received downfall in early 2021 it is time when it announced a similar update to its privacy policy that kind of forced users to accept the changes to continue using the service.

On top of that, WhatsApp previously attracted scrutiny for data sharing practices with parent company Meta (then Facebook) for ad targeting.

The latest penalty which comes two weeks after the DPC has 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.

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