EPA
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Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has been fined again by the DPC, the Irish data controller. The tech giant has to pay 265 million euros because the company violated European privacy rules.
The company was fined because a dataset containing personal data of more than 533 million Facebook users was posted online by unknown persons. The dataset was located on a website for hackers and contained, among other things, telephone numbers, dates of birth and email addresses.
According to Meta, the personal data was collected through Facebook using features that people normally use to find their friends on the platform with phone numbers. The Irish data watchdog says this so-called scrap – collection and fusion of public information with software – to have investigated the period between May 2018 and September 2019.
Meta claims to have fully cooperated with the Irish authority. “We made changes to our systems during that time and the ability to ‘scrape’ our features with phone numbers in this way has been removed,” a spokesperson said. “Unauthorized collection of personal data is unacceptable and against our rules.”
On appeal
It is the fourth time that Meta has been fined by the Irish, who play a key role in enforcing European privacy rules. Many large technology companies have European offices in Ireland for tax reasons.
For example, the company was fined €405 million in September for failing to adequately protect teenagers’ personal data on Instagram. Meta wants to appeal against that fine. The new fine is also “carefully considered” by Meta.
