WhatsApp fined $5.9M for lawful processing GDPR violations
By 
Neil Hodge2023-01-19T18:21:00
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) on Thursday announced a fine of 5.5 million euros (U.S. $5.9 million) against WhatsApp under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for forcing users to consent to updated terms and conditions or lose access to the service.
The penalty is the third the Irish DPC has assessed against Meta businesses this year for similar violations of the GDPR. On Jan. 4, the regulator announced fines of €210 million (then-U.S. $223 million) against Facebook and €180 million (then-U.S. $191 million) against Instagram. Meta plans to appeal all three fines.
As part of the enforcement action, WhatsApp was ordered to bring its data processing operations into compliance within six months. A WhatsApp spokesperson said the company “strongly believes that the way the service operates is both technically and legally compliant” and disagreed with the decision.
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