Yet another EU data privacy fine for Meta. This time, Meta was fined $1.3 billion for another EU data privacy violation – a new record!
According to The New York Times (Meta Fined $1.3 Billion for Violating E.U. Data Privacy Rules, written by Adam Satariano and available here), Meta on Monday was fined a record 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion). Perhaps even worse, Meta was also ordered to stop transferring data collected from Facebook users in Europe to the United States, in a major ruling against the social media company for violating European Union data protection rules.
The penalty, announced by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, is potentially one of the most consequential in the five years since the European Union enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Regulators said the company failed to comply with a 2020 decision by the EU’s highest court that Facebook data shipped across the Atlantic was not sufficiently protected from American spy agencies.
But it remains unclear if or when Meta will ever need to cordon off the data of Facebook users in Europe. Meta said it would appeal the decision, setting up a potentially lengthy legal process.
At the same time, European Union and American officials are negotiating a new data-sharing pact that would provide legal protections for Meta and scores of other companies to continue moving information between the United States and Europe — a pact that could nullify much of the European Union’s ruling on Monday. A preliminary deal was announced last year. So, that may be the silver lining in all of this for Meta.
The ruling, which comes with a grace period of at least five months before Meta needs to comply, applies only to Facebook and not Instagram and WhatsApp, which Meta also owns. The company said that there would be no immediate disruption to Facebook’s service in the European Union.
On Monday, Meta said it was being unfairly singled out for data-sharing practices used by thousands of companies.
“Without the ability to transfer data across borders, the internet risks being carved up into national and regional silos, restricting the global economy and leaving citizens in different countries unable to access many of the shared services we have come to rely on,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, and Jennifer G. Newstead, the company’s chief legal officer, said in a statement.
This is the third multi hundred million dollar fine for Meta in less than a year. Last year, the Irish DPC also slapped Instagram with a fine of €405 million after an investigation found the social media platform mishandled teenagers’ personal information in violation of strict European Union data privacy rules. And they were also fined another $277 million by the Irish DPC following a probe that found the social-media company had failed to apply strict safeguards required under GDPR.
The fact that Meta was fined $1.3 billion today means they’re up to about $2 billion – in less than a year!
So, what do you think? Are you surprised that Meta was fined $1.3 billion today? And do you think it will get them to change things? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
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