EU Firms Were Fined Over $3 Billion For Violating Data Protection And Privacy Laws And Meta Paid 80% Of It

A new report is shedding light on a massive array of companies in the EU being fined huge sums in the past three years. The tech firms paid a mega total of 2.83 billion Euros (i.e. $3 Billion Dollars) for 1400 cases launched against them.

Most of the lawsuits filed had to do with cases registered for failing to obey data protection policies. Out of those huge fines put forward, it was good to see the figure be much lower than that witnessed in the previous year.

But the reason why the year 2022 is standing out so much is linked to the severity of charges put forward on one single tech giant and that is Meta. You’ll be amazed how the report highlights the tech giant Meta paid 80% of those fines administered.

This particular data comes to us thanks to EnforcementTracker and remember, not every single case out there today is actually made public. Meanwhile, while the biggest sum charged for such violations was believed to be in the third quarter of 2021, Q3 of 2022 was definitely very significant too. This is where we saw the likes of fines starting from 430 million Euros.

The biggest sum charged for such violations in Q3 was also worth a glance and it stood at nearly 430 million Euros. Seeing Meta fined huge amounts on a repeated basis really proved how most penalties were paid through the pockets of the tech giant.

The DPC who is based in Ireland imposed a mega 405 million Euros fine on Meta in September of last year. In this particular case, it had to do with two major issues being found in the processing of personal information linked to immature users on the Instagram app.

Sensitive details like a child’s email ID and phone numbers were set out publicly while using the app’s business account feature. Meanwhile, Instagram set out profiles of young kids on a public basis, thanks to their default settings.

In the same way, we saw another huge sum of 265 million Euros come forward by a similar entity in November of last year where Meta was slammed for breaking two articles of the data protection law by the EU. This is when details from Facebook users arose from different parts of the world and were then seen being scraped away from profiles put in the public eye.

On that note, Meta was being scrutinized intensely and the DPC released a new reprimand and order that forced the firm to allow processing into compliance by setting out a new array of remedial actions that had a specific deadline.

Meta was seen making adjustments within a certain timeframe and so far, it wouldn’t be wrong to mention that fines worth 1 billion Euros were made for violating the laws of the GDPR.

So as you can see from this particular report, ever since the year 2018, the body that handles Europe’s framework linked to data protection ends up impacting various businesses that operate within the European Union.

Since such behavior is highlighted to be extra-territorial, this GDPR rule is applying to firms present outside the European Union. This particular legislation is designed to work up a fight against numerous data subjects instead of governing firms.

But you also have to remember that such behavior by the EU might seem to be a lot but it’s also necessary as the world works to establish a stronger connection. And therefore it’s getting so much harder to stay anonymous, thanks to social media platforms.

H/T: Atlasvpn
Read next: The US states where hackers launch the most cyberattacks and steal the most money
Previous Post Next Post