Facebook fined €17m for breaching EU data privacy laws
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At a glance
Facebook parent company Meta fined €17m
The fine is for breaching EU data privacy laws
Irish data watchdog said Meta's platforms "failed to have in place appropriate technical and organisational measures".
Facebook parent company Meta has been fined €17m for breaching EU data privacy laws.
It follows an inquiry into 12 data breaches the Irish Data Protection Commission received over a six-month period between 7 June, 2018 and 4 December, 2018.
The Irish data watchdog said Meta's platforms had "failed to have in place appropriate technical and organisational measures" in the context of the 12 personal data breaches.
A spokesperson for Meta said that it takes "our obligations under the GDPR seriously and will carefully consider the decision as our processes continue to evolve".
"This fine is about record-keeping practices from 2018 that we have since updated, not a failure to protect people's information," they said.
Ireland regulates Meta and a number of leading tech firms because their European Union headquarters are in the country.
Two European supervisory authorities working as part of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR's) decision-making process raised objections to the initial DPC decision.
However, "consensus was achieved through further engagement between the DPC and the supervisory authorities," the Irish commission said.