Facebook owner Meta fined AUD 2 billion for Mishandling User Information

Facebook's owner Meta has been fined a colossal AUD 2 billion by Ireland's privacy regulator for a breach in EU data protection regulation. 

The Data Protection Commission (DPC) stated that Meta violated General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), by transferring EU user data to the US without proper precautions in place, despite a European court of justice ruling in 2020. 

This decision requires the same level of protection as GDPR has when data leaves the EU for a destination outside of it. The DPC reprimanded Facebook for not addressing the risks to the data subjects' fundamental rights and freedoms. 

This legal cahllenge, made by Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy campaigner, arose as a result of concerns stemming from the Edward Snowden revelations that European user data is inadequately protected from US intelligence agencies when transferred across the Atlantic. 

Meta has been given five months to suspend Facebook data transfers, and six months to cease the unlawful processing and storage of personal EU data already transferred across the Atlantic.  

Meta has appealed the decision and seeks a stay on the data transfer order.

- CyberBeat