A record fine of $1.2 billion will be imposed on Meta due to allegations involving data transfers. By transferring data between Europe and the US, Meta allegedly violated the EU’s data protection laws. According to the Irish Data Protection Commission. Regulators alleged that it had not done enough to shield European users from having their data utilized in violation of US law.
For breaking the laws governing data protection in the European Union, Meta was fined. The problem centers on Facebook’s handling of user data from Europe. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was broken by Facebook when it transferred user data from Europe to the U.S. According to Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), which released the findings of its investigation into Meta Ireland on Monday.
In a nutshell, this occurs when Facebook transmits personal data from its EU clients to Americans. The information might be given to American spy agencies. Up until 2020, a contract known as the Privacy Shield allowed for the free flow of user data from the EU to American businesses.
When the Court of Justice of the EU found that it didn’t shield the data of EU users from American monitoring. However, even after the Privacy Shield was revoked, Facebook continued with the data transfer. Which led the regulators in the EU to launch an investigation.
With this penalty, Facebook will exceed Amazon, which was hit with an $886 million fine over a similar violation, as the EU’s largest fine ever. Euronews reports that Meta intends to challenge the judgment.
The DPC also prohibited Facebook from ever again transferring user data to the US. The business has been given five months to discontinue data transfers and six months to destroy any data. If Meta is unable to send user data to the States. As it previously warned, it may be obliged to shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe. But if the EU and the U.S. can come to a new deal on data transfers from the EU to the U.S., which may occur over the next few months, this might be avoided.