The Irish data protection authority has imposed a record fine of 405 million euros on Instagram over the social network’s handling of children’s data. “We made our final decision last Friday and it includes a €405 million fine,” said a spokesperson for the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC). So the full details of the decision will be published next week. This was reported by Reuters news agency.
According to the report, Instagram plans to appeal the fine. A spokesperson for Mita’s parent company clarified this in an emailed statement.
A Meta spokesperson said Instagram updated its settings over a year ago and has since released new features to protect teens and keep their data private. Moreover: Instagram does not agree to calculate the fine and is carefully examining the decision.
Numerous investigations against Facebook & Co.
Since Instagram belongs to Facebook and the social media platform’s EU headquarters in Ireland, the supervisory authority there is responsible. This has already launched more than a dozen investigations against meta companies, including Facebook and WhatsApp.
At the beginning of July, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner told her colleagues in the European Union that it would prevent Facebook’s parent Meta from transferring user data to the USA. It may take a few months before a final decision is made. However, with the looming order to halt data transfers, Meta has repeatedly threatened to shut down many of its services such as Facebook and Instagram in Europe.
In March, Ireland imposed a €17 million fine on Meta. A total of twelve data protection law violations by the Facebook operator were cited as justification.
WhatsApp, in turn, was fined a record €225 million in September last year for failing to comply with EU data protection rules in 2018. WhatsApp has sued the millions in fine from Ireland’s data protection authority before the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
(accused)
