![]() “We disagree with the decision today regarding the transparency we provided to people in 2018 and the penalties are entirely disproportionate,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, has faced mounting criticism for taking too long to wrap up its cases. ![]() But the Irish regulator, which has at least 28 privacy probes open targeting tech giants such as Apple Inc. The rules put watchdogs based in a company’s chosen EU hub in charge of supervising them. ![]() Under the three-year-old GDPR law, authorities have powers to fine companies as much as 4% of their annual sales. The fine comes weeks after Inc. was hit with a record 746 million-euro penalty in Luxembourg, where it has its European base, for processing personal data in violation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. The Irish Data Protection Commission - Silicon Valley’s main privacy watchdog in Europe - said it found violations in the way WhatsApp explained how it processed users’ and non-users’ data, as well as how data was shared between WhatsApp and other Facebook companies. “And you can still count on absolutely no ads interrupting your communication,” he said.Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp was ordered to pay a 225 million-euro ($266 million) penalty for failing to be transparent about how it handled personal information, its first fine under beefed-up European Union data protection law. “You can continue to use WhatsApp no matter where in the world you are, or what smartphone you’re using,” Koum wrote in a post on WhatsApp’s official company blog. Koum, for his part, has said that nothing will change for WhatsApp users as a result of the new acquisition. In remarks Wednesday, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg made it clear that the company has no plans to put ads in WhatsApp, saying they are not the “right way to monetize messaging.” But the company has said that it does not c ollect users’ personal information and knows only users’ phone numbers and those of their contacts.įor those who may worry that WhatsApp’s focus on privacy will fall by the wayside now that it has been snapped into the Facebook ecosystem, both companies have been clear that little about WhatsApp is set to change - at least for the foreseeable future. Those downloading WhatsApp do grant the program a number of permissions for their phones, including the ability to read their contact lists, read phone status and identity and look at their location information. “Jan’s childhood made him appreciate communication that was not bugged or taped.” “It’s a decidedly contrarian approach shaped by Jan’s experience growing up in a communist country with a secret police,” Goetz wrote on Sequoia ’s Tumblr page. In building the app, Koum focused heavily on making sure that it was secure and did not collect too much personal information. When Koum came to the United States as a 16-year-old, he was living on food stamps and looking for an easy way to communicate with his family back home, according to Jim Goetz, a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital, a firm that invested in WhatsApp. Those close to him attribute that focus to his upbringing in Ukraine and fears about something many Americans may now worry about: government surveillance. Maintaining the same privacy and security standards in WhatsApp is clearly an important point for Koum. Facebook is sometimes thought to have overstepped users’ expectations - and sometimes even government guidelines - on both points. WhatsApp is known for placing a strong focus on privacy, and co-founder Jan Koum has been vehement about his opposition to advertising in the product. WhatsApp’s multibillion-dollar acquisition by Facebook has turned more than a few heads - and not just with the steep price tag.
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