The owner of popular social media platform including Facebook and Instagram, Meta, was penalised by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) with a punishment of €390 million (approximately $414 million) for breaking EU data laws. The commission has determined that it is unlawful for Meta to request users’ consent before using their data for targeted adverts on Facebook and Instagram. The three-month window now gives Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta time to change its targeted ad policies.
Meta – Parent Company of Facebook & Instagram fined 390 Million Euro by Irelands Data Protection Commission (DPC)
According to the DPC, Meta’s platforms cannot compel users to give their consent because they were given the option of accepting the data usage policy or leaving the platforms altogether. Due to the fact that Facebook and Instagram have offices in Ireland to manage their European business, the Irish regulator is given the opportunity to lead on EU law enforcement actions.
Meta disappointed with the ruling and plans to appeal
The social media giant has stated that it will appeal the decision and that it is “disappointed” with it. The DPC decision, according to Meta, does not apply to personal ads on its platforms.
The position of Meta about the use of legal bases for ad processing in the EU region was discussed in a blog post by Meta’s director of communication, Andy Stone. He tweeted: “These choices don’t stop targeted ads from appearing on our platform. The decisions solely concern the legal justification that Meta employs to provide specific advertising.”
Privacy advocates have welcomed the judgement as a huge victory and claim that Meta will now be required to provide its customers a proper option over how their data is used to target online adverts.
This would also be a serious setback for Meta, whose primary source of income is advertising and amounts to about $118 billion (as of 2021).
Meta was hit with a $281 million fine earlier in November of last year for a data breach that resulted in the public disclosure of information pertaining to millions of Facebook users.
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