EU hits Facebook parent Meta with record $1.3 billion over transfer of user data to US file Photo Credit: AP
The European Union imposed a record $1.3 billion privacy fine on Meta on May 22 and ordered it to stop transferring user data across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decades-long case sparked by US cyber snooping fears.
The €1.2 billion fine by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is the largest since The EU’s strict data privacy regime took effect five years agocross Amazon to be fined €746 million in 2021 for data security breaches.
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The Irish watchdog is Meta’s lead privacy regulator in the 27-nation bloc as the Silicon Valley tech giant’s European headquarters are based in Dublin.
meta, which was before warned that services could be cut off for its users in Europevowed to appeal and ask the courts to immediately stay the verdict.
The company said, ‘Facebook has no immediate problem in Europe.
“This decision is flawed, unfair and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies that transfer data between the EU and the US,” Jennifer Newsted, Meta’s president of global and affairs and chief legal officer, said in a statement.
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It is another twist in a legal battle that began in 2013, when Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems complained about Facebook’s handling of his data following revelations by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about US cyber snooping. was registered.
Saga highlights conflict between Washington and Brussels over differences Europe’s tough approach on data privacy and the comparatively lax regulation in the US, which lacks a federal privacy law.
an agreement covering EU-US data transfer called privacy shield was rejected by the EU’s top court in 2020, which said it did not do enough to protect residents from US government electronic snooping.
This left one more tool for controlling data transfer – the stock legal contract. Irish regulators initially ruled that Meta did not need to be fined because it was acting in good faith in using them to move data across the Atlantic. But it was rejected last month by a top panel of EU data privacy authorities, a decision which the Irish watchdog confirmed on May 22.
Meanwhile, Brussels and Washington signed an agreement last year on a reworked privacy shield that Meta can use, but the agreement awaits a decision by European authorities on whether it will adequately protect data. Protects privacy.
EU institutions are reviewing the agreement, and the bloc’s lawmakers called for reforms in May, saying the safeguards are not strong enough.
Meta warned in its latest earnings report that without a legal basis for the data transfer, it would be forced to stop offering its products and services in Europe, “which could have a material and negative impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.” will have an adverse effect”.
The social media company could face a costly and complex revamp of its operations if it is forced to stop shipping user data across the Atlantic. Meta has a fleet of 21 data centers according to its website, but 17 of them are in the United States. The other three are in the European countries of Denmark, Ireland and Sweden. The other is in Singapore.
Other social media giants are also facing pressure over their data practices. TIC Toc The Chinese-owned short video sharing app has sought to calm Western fears about potential cyber security risks with a $1.5 billion project to store US user data on Oracle servers.