Social media giant Facebook and its subsidiaries Instagram and WhatsApp have been the subject of most data investigations in Ireland.

This is due to the European Union’s new data protection regulation came into force a year ago.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission says it has launched 19 statutory investigations, 11 of which focus on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.

Twitter and LinkedIn are also under investigation, and last week the commission launched a probe into Google over the way it uses personal data to provide targeted advertising.