New Delhi (India), 23rd May 2023: After failing to protect personal information from the eyes of American intelligence services, Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. was smacked with a record €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) European Union privacy punishment and given a deadline to stop exporting users’ data to the US.
According to a judgement released on Monday by the Irish Data Protection Commission, the social network giant’s continuous data transfers to the US did not address “the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms” of people whose data was being transferred over the Atlantic.
In addition to the €746 million fine, Meta was given five months to “suspend any future transfer of personal data to the US” and six months to stop “the unlawful processing, including storage, in the US” of transferred personal EU data.
A ban on data transfers for Meta was widely anticipated, prompting the US corporation to threaten total exit from the EU. However, its impact has been mitigated by the decision’s transition period and the potential of a new EU-US data flows deal, which might become operational this year.
The Meta fine falls on the fifth anniversary of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, widely regarded as the world’s privacy standard.
Since May 2018, authorities in the EU’s 27 member states have gained the authority to levy fines of up to 4% of a company’s annual revenue for the most unacceptable infractions. The Irish watchdog has emerged as the primary privacy regulator for some of the country’s largest internet businesses, including Meta and Apple Inc.
