After the Irish regulators slapped the chat service with a record fine for breaching strict EU data privacy rules, WhatsApp has decided to add more details to its private policy and flagging that information for European users.
WhatsApp’s private policy will be updated from Monday. The private policy of the messaging app will be reorganised to provide more information on the data it collects and how it is used.
Whatsapp is owned by Facebook, now renamed Meta platforms. The company said that it will explain that how the company protects the data shared across borders for its global service and the legal foundations for processing the data.
With the new updates, users in Europe will see a notification at the top of their chat list that will take them to the new information.
Ireland’s data privacy watchdog imposed a record 225 million euro ($267 million) fine on Whatsapp for violating the stringent European Union data protection rules on transparency about sharing people’s data with other Facebook companies.
The chat service had disagreed with the decision however, it has to comply by updating its policy while it appeals. The update doesn’t affect how data is handled and users won’t have to agree to anything new or take any other action.
Ireland’s Data Privacy Commission is the lead privacy regulator for WhatsApp under European Union rules. It’s regional headquarter is in Dublin.
WhatsApp’s last update faced backlash from users who decided switching on to rival messaging apps such as telegram and signal after it botched a different update to its private policy that raised the concerns of the users as they were being forced to agree to share more of their data with Facebook.