The Irish government has ordered WhatsApp to pay a $ 225 million fine, equivalent to $ 1.38 billion, following an investigation by the European Data Protection Commission into changes in the use of users’ personal information.

The investigation began in December 2018, after revising the privacy policy to determine whether the application “meets its transparency obligations”. The country’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has found WhatsApp violating the rules, undermining the principles of “data protection, justice and accountability”.

Since the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD) 2018, regulators have allowed companies such as Facebook and Google to impose fines of up to 4% of their global revenues. The decision of the Irish government is the largest and the second largest in Europe by the Irish regulator. This value is second only to the $ 746 million fine imposed on Amazon in July this year.

The initial fine will be 50 50 million, but European authorities have pushed Ireland to raise it to 22 225 million.

WhatsApp Answer

In response to this decision, WhatsApp said it considers the fine disproportionate and will appeal.

WhatsApp is committed to providing a secure and private service. We work to ensure that the information we provide is transparent and complete, and will continue to do so, ”the company said in a statement.