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.