WhatsApp forced to revise privacy policy for Europe after record £190m fine
Whatsapp has been ordered to change its privacy policy following a giant fine by the Irish data protection watchdog earlier this year, according to reports.
The €225m (£190m) fine is the second largest in history over GDPR.
The tech giant is appealing against the penalty but must still update its privacy policies for Europe and the UK in the meanwhile, with immediate effect, according to the BBC, which first reported the news.
The messaging service said the tweaks will “add additional detail around our existing practices” and only exist in the European version of the privacy policy, rather than worldwide – but that nothing about its service is changing.
“There are no changes to our processes or contractual agreements with users, and users will not be required to agree to anything or to take any action in order to continue using WhatsApp,” the company told the BBC.
The news comes after Meta, the owner of WhatsApp and Facebook, announced that encrypted messaging will not be completely rolled out until some point in 2023, following fears such a move could put children at greater risk of exploitation and abuse.
Meta said it is taking time to “get this right” and pledged to work to strike a balance between privacy and safety online.