Meta was just fined EUR 405 million by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) for letting teenagers set up accounts that publicly displayed their phone numbers and email address.
The investigation took place over two years into potential breaches of the European Union’s general data protection regulation (GPDR). The DPC found that Instagram had allowed users aged 13-17 to operate business accounts on the platform which displayed the users’ phone numbers and email addresses.
Additionally, the commission found that the platform had operated a user registration system with the accounts of 13-17 year old users set to public by default.
The DPC regulates Meta on behalf of EU because the company’s headquarters are found in Ireland.
Meta was previously fined for EUR 225 million in September 2021 for infringements of GPDR on WhatsApp and a EUR 17 million fine in March earlier this year. The current fine is the biggest for the company and only second largest fine under GPDR. The highest in record is the EUR 746 million fine on Amazon in July 2021.
“We adopted our final decision last Friday and it does contain a fine of €405m. Full details of the decision will be published next week,” mentioned a DPC spokesperson.
Meta intends to appeal fine
Meta, through its spokesperson, has since released a statement on the ruling:
“This inquiry focused on old settings that we updated over a year ago, and we’ve since released many new features to help keep teens safe and their information private. Anyone under 18 automatically has their account set to private when they join Instagram, so only people they know can see what they post, and adults can’t message teens who don’t follow them. While we’ve engaged fully with the DPC throughout their inquiry, we disagree with how this fine was calculated and intend to appeal it. We’re continuing to carefully review the rest of the decision.”
Source | Featured Image by Nokia621
Ram found his love and appreciation for writing in 2015 having started in the gaming and esports sphere for GG Network. He would then transition to focus more on the world of tech which has also began his journey into learning more about this world. That said though, he still has the mentality of "as long as it works" for his personal gadgets.
