Meta must pay million fine for breach of GDPR

Meta has been hit with another fine. Once again, the fine is for a violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Ireland is now demanding a total of 265 million euros from the tech company from the USA.

Personal data was tapped

In terms of fines, this will be an expensive year for Meta. Just this summer, the tech group had to pay Facebook users in the US a whopping $650 million. Now another chunk is coming to the parent company, which in addition to Facebook also unites other major brands such as Instagram and WhatsApp under itself. The Irish data protection authority is demanding a total of 265 million euros. The background is inadequate data protection, which violated the EU-wide GDPR.

In 2018, criminals were able to tap into data records of a total of 533 million Facebook users. Now, Irish data protection experts are accusing the tech company of not having initiated sufficient measures against such theft. The authority has now announced this. In addition to the fine, Meta is also facing an extensive overhaul of its data processing. This would have to be urgently redesigned, as it violates the GDPR in its current form.

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Further fine for Meta

Although the actual incident occurred in 2018, the data protection authority was able to determine that much data was stolen only in 2019. This is objectionable in that the Irish authority already asked Meta to revise in 2018. Should a data protection authority do so, it is the responsibility of the company in question to take appropriate technical and organizational measures to minimize the likelihood of future theft. Facebook, however, has not done this. Not only the Irish data protection authority, which is responsible due to Meta’s European headquarters in Ireland, was able to determine this.

The other data protection authorities of the other EU members were also able to confirm the abuses. In the meantime, the fines imposed by the EU against Meta are adding up. Soon they will break through the magic barrier of 1 billion euros. But even the 910 million euros in fines currently accumulated are only peanuts for the tech company. Whether the US company will have to pay them at all is questionable anyway. After all, Meta has already announced that it will appeal the fines. It remains to be seen what the first verdicts will entail. Since all of them are violations of the GDPR, one conviction should be enough to justify the fine in its entirety.