Ireland fines WhatsApp for breaching EU privacy laws

Ireland on Thursday slapped Facebook's WhatsApp messaging service with a record fine for breaching EU data privacy laws after European regulators demanded the penalty be increased.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission was entrusted with the case because Facebook's European headquarters are situated in the country.

"And following this reassessment the DPC has imposed a fine of 225 million euros ($267 million) on WhatsApp," the commission said, by far the largest penalty it has ever issued to a company, dwarfing the 450,000-euro fine imposed on Twitter last year.

As Ireland hosts the regional headquarters of a number of major tech players such as Apple, Google and Twitter, the DPC has been largely responsible for policing adherence to the EU's landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) charter.

But Ireland has come under pressure for not taking a firm enough line against tech giants, who are generally understood to be drawn to the country by its low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent.

WhatsApp said it would appeal the decision.

"We disagree with the decision today" it said in a statement, calling the penalties "entirely disproportionate."

- 'Dissuasive fine' -

The DPC launched the WhatsApp probe in December 2018 to examine whether the messaging app "discharged its GDPR transparency obligations" with regard to telling users how their data would be processed between WhatsApp and other Facebook companies.

In an initial finding submitted to other European regulators for approval last December, the DPC proposed imposing a fine of between 30 and 50 million euros, but a number of national regulators rejected the figure, triggering the launch of a dispute resolution process in June.

Last month, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) instructed the DPC to increase the fine, with Germany's regulator leading the calls for the penalty to be higher.

The EDPB said that the fine had to "reflect a significant level of non-compliance which impact on all of the processing carried out by WhatsApp" in Ireland.

The fine had to be "effective, dissuasive and proportionate," it said.

Hailed as a potent weapon to bring tech titans to heel, the GDPR endowed national watchdogs with cross-border powers and the possibility to impose sizeable fines for data misuse.

But Germany's data protection commissioner, Ulrich Kelber, in March wrote an open letter criticising the DPC for the "extremely slow" way it handled GDPR complaints.

YouTube Music tops 50 million subscribers
San Francisco (AFP) Sept 2, 2021 - YouTube's music streaming service reported Thursday it now has more than 50 million subscribers, saying it is growing quickly as it tries to close the gap with market-leader Spotify.

YouTube Music trails rivals Spotify, Amazon and Apple but has been gaining ground, according to market tracker Midia Research. YouTube is a subsidiary of Google.

"Google's YouTube Music has been the standout story of the music subscriber market for the last couple of years, resonating both in many emerging markets and with younger audiences across the globe," Midia analyst Mark Mulligan said in a post.

"The early signs are that YouTube Music is becoming to Gen Z what Spotify was to Millennials half a decade ago."

Spotify had 32 percent of the global music streaming market in the first quarter of this year, while Apple Music accounted for 16 percent and Amazon had 13 percent, according to Midia.

YouTube Music accounted for eight percent, behind China-based Tencent with its 13 percent share, Midia reported.

"We're seeing impressive growth in countries like Korea, India, Japan, Russia and Brazil where music is a top passion," YouTube global head of music Lyor Cohen said in a letter about passing the 50 million subscriber milestone.

"The unique offerings of YouTube Music and Premium are resonating in established and emerging music markets alike."

The overall number of streaming music service subscribers climbed more than 19 million to a total of 487 million in the first quarter of this year, according to Midia.

YouTube Music was the fastest-growing music streaming service last year, as its ranks of subscribers grew some 60 percent, said Mulligan.

"We're in our own lane -- there's no other place where fans can get uninterrupted access to the largest and most diverse catalogue of music, artists and culture," Cohen said in the letter.

"We're making it easy for music fans to go deep and find their thing."

YouTube said in June that it paid more than $4 billion to the music industry during over the prior 12 months.

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