DUBLIN: On Thursday, Ireland’s regulator revealed that social media giant Meta has been fined a further 5.5 million euros penalty ($5.9 million) for violations of EU data protection laws via its instant messaging service WhatsApp.
The punishment comes on the heels of a 390 million euro fine for Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta, which was levied two weeks ago after it was discovered that they had broken the same EU laws.
The firm operated “in breach of its obligations in relation to transparency,” according to the Irish Data Protection Commission’s (DPC) latest ruling, the watchdog stated in a statement.
Additionally, the DPC stated that Meta relied on an improper legal basis “for its processing of personal data for its purposes of service enhancement and security,” giving the company six months to comply.
The violations are similar to those described in the regulator’s previous January action against Meta.
However, the earlier decision also charged the Meta platforms with violating laws governing the use of personal data for targeted advertising.
The corporation, which was co-founded by social media tycoon Mark Zuckerberg, had three months to respond and comply with the Irish regulator in that situation.
In a statement announcing its intent to appeal the judgement, Meta pointed out that targeted or customised advertising was not prohibited by the regulatory decision.
DCP claim
Either then 5.5 million meta penalty, The DPC claimed that WhatsApp’s 225 million euro fine for “for breaches of this and other transparency rules over the same period of time” was the reason why its most recent sanction was significantly lower.
The Whatsapp fine on Thursday was likewise much smaller because it had nothing to do with targeted advertising.
Meta had received fines from the Irish regulator totaling 405 million euros in September for improper management of minors’ data and 265 million euros in November for inadequate user data protection.
Following the passage of three legally binding rulings by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), the EU’s data protection body, in early December, this most recent round of fines was imposed.
The three complaints against Meta were made by the Vienna-based privacy group NOYB, which charged the social media giant with reinterpreting permission as a civil law contract and preventing users from objecting to targeted advertising.
Ireland government
The Irish government had submitted a draught decision in October 2021 that supported the group’s legal justification and suggested fining Facebook and Instagram up to a combined total of 36 million euros for their lack of openness.
Other European organizations, including France’s CNIL regulator, deemed the suggested sanction to be far too mild and rejected it.
They requested that the EDPB decide the case after the EU data regulator ruled in their favour.
The Irish regulator has been requested by the EDPB to look into Meta’s usage of personal data.
The EU body does not have the ability to “order an authority to engage in open-ended and speculative research,” the DPC argued in its statement.
The regulator declared that it will ask the European Union Court of Justice to reject the EDPB’s request.
Although Meta’s multi-billion dollar profits outweigh the most recent DPC sanctions, the company has been devastated by a global advertising downturn and stagnant user growth.
Meta said in November that it would let off more than 11,000 employees after third-quarter profits more than fell to $4.4 billion.
Along with several other major global tech companies, such as Apple and Google, the group’s European operations are headquartered in Dublin, therefore Ireland’s data protection agency is the primary regulator in charge of holding them accountable.
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