EU hits Meta with record €1.2B privacy fine

[Catweazle]

Tech giant transferred Europeans’ data to the US unlawfully, Irish privacy regulator said.

U.S tech giant Meta has been hit with a record €1.2 billion fine for not complying with the EU’s privacy rulebook.

The Irish Data Protection Commission announced on Monday that Meta violated the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when it shuttled troves of personal data of European Facebook users to the United States without sufficiently protecting them from Washington's data surveillance practices.

It's the largest fine imposed under the bloc's flagship General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy law and it comes on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the law's enforcement on May 25.

Amazon was previously fined €746 million by Luxembourg and the Irish regulator also imposed four fines against Meta's platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp ranging between €405 million and €225 million in the past two years.

Full article https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-hits-meta-with-record-e1-2b-privacy-fine/

[yojimbo274064400]

Irish DPC should be ashamed it required 10 years and 3 court procedures against them to uphold the data protection rights of EU citizens, read more here noyb win: € 1.2 billion fine against Meta over EU-US data transfers

[stardepp]

@Catweazle Because of these scandals of Facebook I deleted my Facebook account 8 weeks ago.

[DoctorG]

@Catweazle And if Zucks's Meta does not pay the fine in a few years? Will EU authorities block Meta services? no, never. Meta has too much power to get fined in EU courts. And i guess EU will tell in a few months Meta that all is TADPF conforment.

[edwardp]

@DoctorG Unfortunately, I think €1.2B is a 'drop in the bucket' for Meta. They'll probably chalk it up to the cost of doing business.

[DoctorG]

@edwardp I guess they will not pay any fine and complain over years to US and EU courts, the best way to run away from any punishment.

[edwardp]

@DoctorG The problem I have with fines, in general, is that they have no teeth. If the authorities want to force the companies to behave and abide by the laws, any fine imposed must be large enough to hurt. If the fine were actually €10.2B instead, that might send a message.

[Pesala]

The problem I have with the fines is that the individuals damaged by the actions of Facebook will never see any of the money. If any does get paid, it will disappear into the bank accounts of lawyers and bureaucrats.

[ingolftopf]

@yojimbo274064400
Better late than never.