Monster fine for Meta: Facebook group sentenced to 265 million euros

Created: 11/28/2022, 6:32 p.m

Logo of the tech giant Meta.

© IMAGO/Adrien Fillon

The tech giant and Facebook parent company Meta has to pay a fine of 265 million euros.

Reason for this: data of 500 million users has fallen into the hands of hackers

Dublin - The Facebook parent company Meta has been sentenced to a fine of 265 million euros for breaches of data protection in the European Union.

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) imposed the penalty after completing a "extensive investigation process" and in cooperation with all other data protection authorities in the EU, as announced on Monday.

It's about the data of half a billion Facebook users that had been published on a hacker website.

Tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has its European headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, as do tech giants Google and Apple.

Therefore, the local DPC is the responsible authority for data protection issues.

Million fine for Meta: Facebook group probably too negligent with user data

The DPC launched its investigation into Facebook in April 2021.

Previously, in 2019, data from more than 530 million users had been tapped and published on a hacker forum.

The hackers used a tool to make it easier to search for new friends via contact lists.

The authority examined whether Meta sufficiently protected the data of its users and has now found that the group has violated two articles of the European General Data Protection Regulation.

Adaptation measures were also imposed on the Facebook parent in order to adequately protect the data of its users in the future.

Million penalty for Meta: Facebook group has already made changes

Meta explained the decision, which was made on Friday, that data protection was "essential" for the company.

The group has therefore fully cooperated and has already made "changes to our systems".

The Meta share lost 0.91 percent on the stock exchange and stood at a good 110 dollars.

Meta has repeatedly been fined for data breaches.

In September, the Instagram service received a record fine of 405 million euros for violations of European data protection law.

It was about the handling of data of minors in the picture service.