Meta platforms, the parent company of WhatsApp, YouTube, and Instagram, has been stuck by a record fine of $1.3 billion for the European Union. The company has been given a deadline to stop transferring user data to the United States of America. The amount can be dubbed the largest penalty to be imposed on a Big Tech company in terms of privacy violation.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, which looks after the General Data Protection Regulation, delivered the fine to Meta, citing that Facebook has violated the rules that require platforms to make sure that data transfers from Europe to the United States of America have required safeguards.
In place of that, it was found by DPC that Meta’s EU-US data flow is based on contractual clauses that failed to mention the risks to the fundamental rights and freedom of the users on the platform. A major highlight in the case is that Meta was even warned by the European Union’s Court of Justice to protect the information of individuals from the US surveillance programs in a refined way.
Previously, Amazon also has been hit by a similar kind of fine due to irresponsible behavior towards the customer’s data. The tech giant was slapped with a gin of EUR 746 million in the year 2021 due to privacy violations.
As stated by the Data Protection Commission, Facebook’s EU has been granted a period of five months to stop the flow of any future transfer of personal data to the United States. In addition, it has been granted a period of six months to suspend the processing, including storage, of the personal information of European citizens. All the previous data transactions have been violating the terms of GDPR continuously.
