The Irish privacy regulator DPC imposes two fines on Meta totalling 390 million euros for violating privacy rules. Facebook Instagram and Facebook, among others, do not comply with the GDPR, according to the Irish privacy watchdog. Meta is given three months to adapt its data processing to those European privacy rules, but has already appealed.
Instagram Facebook brought Meta, which has a European office in Ireland, 210 million euros for GDPR violations related to Facebook activities and 180 million euros for privacy violations around Instagram. Those activities must comply with the GDPR within three months.
The case started in 2018 when a reporter from Austria and a reporter from Belgium complained about the new general terms and conditions of the social media services. They were obliged to accept them otherwise they could not continue to use Meta’s services.
According to the whistleblowers, Meta’s terms violate the GDPR because they require a company to seek consent from a user before the company can use his or her data for personalized ads.
According to Meta, the use of personal data is necessary for the provision of its services and therefore does not have to ask for consent.
Meta will appeal the ruling. It is the fifth time Meta has been fined by the Irish privacy regulator. Meta has a branch in Ireland due to the favorable tax climate for tech companies and is therefore subject to European privacy rules