Facebook-owned WhatsApp has been fined 225 million euros ($267 million) for breaking the European Union's (EU) data privacy rules. According to The Verge, Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced the decision in an 89-page summary, noting that WhatsApp did not properly inform EU citizens how it handles their personal data, including how it shares that information with its parent company.

WhatsApp has been ordered to make updates to its already lengthy privacy policy and change how it notifies users about sharing their data. This will bring it into compliance with Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which governs how tech companies gather and use data in the EU, the report said. GDPR came into effect in May 2018 and WhatsApp was one of the first companies to be hit with privacy lawsuits under the regulation, it added.