Ireland fines WhatsApp 5.5 million euros for EU privacy breach
London, Jan 19: Ireland fined WhatsApp on Thursday for breaching strict European Union privacy rules by forcing users to consent to allow their personal data to be used to provide "service improvements and security".
The Data Protection Commission issued a 5.5 million euro (USD 5.9 million) penalty in the case, which has exposed divisions with regulators in other EU countries over regulating the chat app's parent Meta.
In a related decision earlier this month, the Irish watchdog hit Meta with a total of USD 390 million in fines for privacy violations involving Facebook and Instagram.
All three cases date back to May 2018, when stringent EU privacy regulations took force.
The commission, which is Meta's lead European privacy regulator because the company's regional headquarters is in Dublin, originally sided with the Silicon Valley giant. But a slew of other EU data protection watchdogs objected to its draft decisions and the Irish watchdog was forced to overturn them and issue stiffer punishments.
In its final decision on the WhatsApp case, the commission also ordered the company to bring its data processing operations into compliance with EU privacy rules within six months.
WhatsApp said it disagreed with the decision and plans to appeal.
"We strongly believe that the way the service operates is both technically and legally compliant," it said in a statement.
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PM Modi, myself don't have 'wife issue': Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): In a friendly banter, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and he didn’t have "the wife issue", as the Congress MP emphasised that everyone has learnt from women in their lives.
Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on the three bills introduced for amendments to the women's quota law and setting up a delimitation commission, Gandhi said women are a driving force in the national imagination and national perspective.
"All of us in this room have been influenced, taught, and have learnt a lot from women in our lives – from mothers, sisters, wives," Gandhi said.
"Of course, the prime minister and myself don't have the wife issue, so we don't get that input, but we have our mothers and sisters," he said while referring to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju's light-hearted remark that he got a scolding at home as he did not pen a poem for his wife like Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal did.
Gandhi also lauded his sister and Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi's speech in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
"Yesterday, I was watching my sister achieve in five minutes what I have not been able to do in 20 years of my political career – make Amit Shah Ji smile," Gandhi said to peals of laughter.
