WhatsApp has been hit with a €225 million fine after Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) decided it had breached privacy rules.

The announcement marks the end of an investigation into the Facebook-owned company which began in 2018.

The probe was launched to discover whether the platform had been open enough about how it handles information.

The fine is the largest ever handed out by the Irish data watchdog and the second ever under GDPR rules.

Last year the DPC fined Twitter €450,000 over a security breach.

In July, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) instructed the organisation to increase the proposed fine.

The DPC has also imposed a reprimand along with an order for the messaging app to bring its processing into compliance by taking a number of remedial actions.

In a statement published by the Associated Press, WhatsApp said it disagreed with the record fine, describing it as “disproportionate.”

“WhatsApp is committed to providing a secure and private service,” the company said in a statement published by the Associated Press. “We have worked to ensure the information we provide is transparent and comprehensive and will continue to do so.”

It added: “We disagree with the decision today regarding the transparency we provided to people in 2018 and the penalties are entirely disproportionate.”

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