WhatsApp被指数据共享行为违规 被罚2.25亿欧元
文 / 林煇智
9/02/2021
（早报讯）爱尔兰数据保护委员会对面簿旗下的通讯应用WhatsApp处以创纪录的2.25亿欧元（约3.58亿新元）的罚款。
彭博社报道，爱尔兰数据保护委员会周四（2日）表示，他们发现WhatsApp在解释如何处理用户和非用户的数据，以及WhatsApp和母公司面簿公司之间共享数据方面存在违规行为。WhatsApp表示，罚款金额完全不成比例，将提起上诉。
数周前，亚马逊公司因违反欧盟《通用数据保护条例》处理个人数据，在欧洲基地所在的卢森堡被处以创纪录的7.46亿欧元罚款。
除了罚款，爱尔兰DPC还对WhatsApp进行了谴责，并下令WhatsApp采取一系列具体的补救行动，使其数据处理过程合规。
截至去年年底，爱尔兰DPC对面簿及其子公司WhatsApp和Instagram共展开了14项重大调查。
WhatsApp hit with record 225 mln euro Irish privacy fine
By Conor Humphries
9/02/2021
Summary
- Largest ever fine by Irish regulator
- Other EU states insisted on larger fine
- WhatsApp to appeal ‘disproportionate’ fine
DUBLIN, Sept 2 (Reuters) – Ireland fined Facebook’s (FB.O) WhatsApp a record 225 million euro ($266 million) on Thursday for privacy breachesafter the EU privacy watchdog pressured the country to take a tougher line with a bigger penalty.
WhatsApp said the fine was “entirely disproportionate” and that it would appeal. Still, the Irish fine is significantly less than the record $886.6 million euro fine meted out to Amazon by the Luxembourg privacy agency in July. read more
Ireland’s Data Privacy Commissioner (DPC), which is the lead data privacy regulator for Facebook within the European Union, said the issues related to whether WhatsApp conformed in 2018 with EU data rules about transparency.
“This includes information provided to data subjects about the processing of information between WhatsApp and other Facebook companies,” the Irish regulator said in a statement.
A WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement that the issues in question related to policies in place in 2018.
“WhatsApp is committed to providing a secure and private service. We have worked to ensure the information we provide is transparent and comprehensive and will continue to do so,” the spokesperson said.
“We disagree with the decision today regarding the transparency we provided to people in 2018 and the penalties are entirely disproportionate,” the spokesperson’s statement said.
EU privacy watchdog the European Data Protection Board said it had given several pointers to the Irish agency in July in order to address criticism from its peers for taking too long to decide in cases involving tech giants and for not fining them enough for any breaches.
It said a WhatsApp fine should take into account Facebook’s turnover and that the company should be given three months instead of six months to comply.
Data regulators from eight other European countries triggered a dispute resolution mechanism after Ireland shared its provisional decision in relation to the WhatsApp inquiry, which started in December 2018.
In July, a meeting of the European Data Protection Board issued a “clear instruction that required the DPC to reassess and increase its proposed fine on the basis of a number of factors contained”, the Irish regulator said.
“Following this reassessment the DPC has imposed a fine of 225 million euros on WhatsApp,” it said.
The Irish regulator also reprimanded and ordered WhatsApp to bring its processing into compliance by taking “a range of specified remedial actions”.
The Irish regulator had 14 major inquiries into Facebook and its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram open as of the end of last year.
Austrian privacy campaigner Max Schrems, who has taken on Facebook in several privacy cases, said he would monitor the company’s appeal closely.
“It is to be expected that this case will now be before the Irish Courts for years and it will be interesting if the DPC is actively defending this decision before the Courts, as it was forced to make such a decision by its EU colleagues at the EDPB,” he said.
($1 = 0.8444 euros)
