Ireland Fines Meta Platforms $18.6M In Data Breach Probe

The Irish government has levied an $18.6 million fine against Meta Platforms FB, the parent company of Facebook, for its handling of 12 data breaches that occurred between June 2018 and December 2018.

What Happened: The fine was enacted by the Data Protection Commission (DPC), which is tasked with investigating tech companies with European headquarters in Ireland.

In a summary of its investigation of Meta, the DPC reported “that Meta Platforms failed to have in place appropriate technical and organizational measures which would enable it to readily demonstrate the security measures that it implemented in practice to protect EU users’ data, in the context of the 12 personal data breaches.”

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What Happened Next: The DPC investigators determined Meta infringed Articles 5(2) and 24(1) of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which provides for penalties of up to 4% of the offending company’s annual revenue.

“The DPC’s decision represents the collective views of both the Data Protection Commission and its counterpart supervisory authorities throughout the EU,” said an agency spokesperson.

A Meta spokesperson responded that the company viewed the fine as being “about record keeping practices from 2018 that we have since updated, not a failure to protect people’s information. We take our obligations under the GDPR seriously, and will carefully consider this decision as our processes continue to evolve.”