EU Privacy Service Fined WhatsApp $266 Million For Data Breach

The European Data Protection Commission, a group of European Union authorities, said Facebook's practices related to WhatsApp data should be reviewed by an Irish privacy watchdog. WhatsApp from Facebook Inc. asked to pay 225 million euros. The fine for dense processing of personal information is the first fine under the European Union's Data Protection Act.

The Irish Data Protection Commission, the leading privacy watchdog in Silicon Valley in Europe, says it found a breach in the way WhatsApp explains how it handles using user and non-user data, and how data is transferred between WhatsApp and Facebook from other companies. This happened a few weeks after Amazon.com Inc. was fined a record 746 million euros in Luxembourg, which is in Europe, for processing personal data in violation of the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

The Irish government says it will also dispatch couriers to take corrective measures to ensure that their communications are consistent with data processing, including explaining how users can file complaints with the regulatory agency.

WhatsApp announced in an Irish regulatory filing in November that it had pledged €77.5 million to pay possible fines following at least two investigations by the country overseeing data protection. Ireland is doing it.