WhatsApp faces $267 million EU fine over Facebook data sharing transparency

The Financial Times reports the Irish Data Protection Commission has fined WhatsApp €225 million ($266.8 million) for not sharing enough details of how it shares European Union users' data with Facebook. The messaging service allegedly failed to live up to its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) transparency obligations. The Commission also said the data sharing itself violated GDPR. WhatsApp was merely storing "pseudonymous" phone number data, for instance, rather than truly anonymizing it. While the numbers were stored using lossy hashes, WhatsApp had the hash key needed to decrypt that info -- it could tie that number to a specific person if it wanted. The ruling asked WhatsApp to both improve its transparency and bring the data sharing in line with the GDPR.