The European Center for Digital Rights that he founded said on Monday that ever since Edward Snowden's revelation of US Big Tech aiding the National Security Agency's mass surveillance apparatus, Facebook was subject to litigation in Ireland. Max Schrems, the Austrian privacy activist whose decadelong case against Facebook led to Monday's penalty on Meta, applauded the decision. 'This decision is fl awed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and the US,' they said in a statement. In a response posted online by Meta's global affairs president Nick Clegg and chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead, Meta hopes to see the US and EU adopt a new legal framework for the use of personal data in the coming months, following an agreement in principle last year, which could allow it to continue its data transfer practices. Meta executives said there is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe. Meta said it will appeal the ruling, including the 'unjustified and unnecessary fine'. Meta has also been ordered on Monday to cease the processing of personal data of European users in the US within six months. 'The unprecedented fine is a strong signal to organizations that serious infringements have far-reaching consequences,' Jelinek said in a statement. She said Facebook has millions of users in Europe, so the volume of personal data transferred is massive. The DPC said it has been investigating Meta Ireland's transfer of user data from the EU to the US since 2020 and found that Meta, with its European head office in Dublin, failed to 'address the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects 'that were identified in a ruling in 2020 by the Court of Justice of the EU, or CJEU.Īndrea Jelinek, head of the European Data Protection Board, said the EDPB found that Meta's infringement is 'very serious since it concerns transfers that are systematic, repetitive and continuous'. The decision announced on Monday is the biggest fine under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, a data protection and privacy law commonly known as the GDPR. įacebook owner Meta has been fined a record 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) by the Irish Data Protection Commission, or DPC, on behalf of the European Union for illegally transferring EU user data to the United States. This won't be the last time Meta or one of its rivals will be called out on data protection and privacy.Meta Platforms Inc's logo is seen on a smartphone in this illustration picture taken Oct 28, 2021. However, Big Tech has consistently shown that it is adept at keeping one step ahead of regulators in terms of innovative ways to make money out of their users' data.

While Meta is appealing this decision, it will likely have to come up with a new way to manage user data from Facebook and its other platforms - a process its competitors will be watching closely. The Biden administration is already working on an EU-US data privacy framework, designed to satisfy GDPR rules if data is moved from Europe to the US. It's only 1% of its annual advertising revenues from Facebook alone.īut it certainly shows that the EU is prepared to stand up to big tech companies over how they treat its citizens' data.Īnd Meta has been given five months to come up with a new plan for keeping EU data secure from the prying eyes of the US government or others. The largest ever from the EU relating to its GDPR regulations.įor the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp with a market capitalisation of $680bn (£546bn), the $1.3bn (£1bn) fine from the Irish regulator won't hurt Meta that much. Science and technology editor is a historic fine.

Meta breach