Meta’s trouble doesn’t show any signs of ending anytime soon. The tech giant recently lost 25% of its market valuation which lead the company to lay off 11,000 of its employees. It has also had many run-ins with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, the latest of which comes from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), which has imposed a €265 million fine against the social media giant.
Based on the conclusions of an investigation into Meta’s Irish branch, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, the penalties and a “range of corrective measures” were imposed (MPIL). To determine the cause of a major data breach that affected more than 530 million Facebook users, an investigation was launched in April 2021.
Utilizing flaws in Instagram Contact Importer and Facebook Messenger Contact Importer, the user data was collected throughout 2019. According to Facebook, these flaws were closed in September 2019. However, the DPC’s investigation discovered that the tools did not adhere to the GDPR’s “obligation for data protection by design and default,” as stated in Article 25 of the legislation, at the time the data was scraped.
The DPC decided to fine Meta on Friday, November 25, after finding that the social media company had breached Article 25 on two occasions (paragraphs 1 and 2).
Since the fall of 2021, Meta has been penalized by the Irish DPC four times for GDPR violations totaling €265 million. Including this decision, the DPC has fined Meta and its affiliates a total of €912 million (about US$942 million) over the previous 14 months. Other penalties include a €405 million ($418 million) fine for Instagram’s improper management of minors’ data.
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