Ireland fines Meta 1.2 billion for breaching data privacy regulations

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) reported this Monday that it has imposed a fine of 1,200 million euros (about 1,299 million dollars) on Goal for infringing through their social network Facebook the privacy of its users.

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This is the largest financial penalty imposed in the European Union (EU) to a multinational for violations related to data protection, after the fine of 746 million euros (807 million dollars) it received Amazon in 2021.

The CPD said in a statement today that it has ordered Goal to suspend the transfer of personal data of users from the EU to the United States, for which the technology has a period of five months to comply.

The regulator of the sector in Ireland, where the most important technology companies are based in Europeexplained that Meta violated article 46 (1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, for its acronym in English), the community regulation that today celebrates five years in force.

According to the commission, the company “kept transferring personal data” from the EU to the US following the ruling issued in 2020 by the European Court of Justice on data protection following a lawsuit filed by the Austrian lawyer and activist Maximillian Schrems.

Since that court decision, the European Commission (EC) eliminated the so-called “privacy shield”, the agreement with which the EU and US Until then, they regulated the transfer of data between the two blocks, which plan to establish a new regulatory agreement during this year.

Likewise, the DPC indicated today that Goal You have six months to “stop processing, including storage” in USA of personal data of European users that were transferred in breach of the GDPRin a decision, he specified, that does not affect other company platforms, such as instagram either WhatsApp.

The Irish commission investigation, launched in August 2020, has examined tools designed by meta to transfer private data of Facebook users from the EU to US

These tools, known as “standard contractual clauses”did not take into account the “risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms” of customers in terms of data, the DPC stressed.

For his part, Goal advanced today in a statement that it will appeal the decision of the Irish authority, “including the unjustified and unnecessary fine”, while specifying that it will request “the suspension of orders through the courts”.

The technology company assured that it feels “marked” and “disappointed”, since it alleged that it uses the same legal tools as “thousands” of other companies in the sector that operate in Europe.

“This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless companies that transfer data between the EU and the US.”Meta concluded.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.