Ireland’s privacy regulator, acting on behalf of the European Union, decided on a record $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion) fine on Meta. The charge is a violation of European privacy law. This was announced by the European guarantor for privacy.
According to the prosecution, Meta would not have protected the personal data of European Facebook users, continuing to transfer them to Washington where they could end up in American intelligence analysis tools with much lower privacy guarantees than the Brussels rules.
The holding would also have carried out these operations in violation of a warning already received from the EU in recent years. Meta, like many other US technology companies, moves data from Europe to the US, because it operates its main data centers there to offer its services.
The investigation by the Irish Authority (acting on behalf of the EU)
The sanction was decided by the commissioner for the protection of personal data, the Irish Helen Dixon. The one imposed by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), which acts on behalf of the EU, is the highest fine ever imposed in Europe for this type of crime.
Already last Friday Bloomberg had anticipated that the fine could arrive at the beginning of the week. And that it would probably have been higher than the 750 million one decided in 2021 by Luxembourg to Amazon, the highest ever imposed so far.
According to the Wall Street Journal, in addition to imposing a fine, the European authority will ask Meta to stop sending information on European Facebook users to the United States and to cancel the data already sent within six months. Obligation that Meta could avoid if Washington concludes an agreement with the EU to allow the transfer of data within certain limits.
The battle between Brussels and Meta, after the revelations of Snowden
Meta in a note lets it be known that he will appeal against the sentence. The battle between Brussels and the holding over how Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp store user data began in 2010, after Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems launched a legal challenge over the risk of espionage by the United States. in light of the revelations of former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden. The fine is the result of the investigations started in Europe after that accusation.