A true expert in convictions for mismanagement of personal data, the Meta group is once again sanctioned. The European Union has just fined Instagram $405 million for a flagrant breach of EU rules on protecting children’s privacy.
Instagram is doomed
After Amazon was fined a record €746 million last year for violating EU General Data Protection Regulation, Instagram was hit with a dramatic fine of 405 million euros. This sanction results from the disclosure of children’s personal information, such as their e-mail address and telephone number, data that is very valuable to advertising companies.
Behind this heavy condemnation, we find the Irish Commission which watches daily over the protection of the data of European citizens. It’s here third time that this Commission condemns a company belonging to the Meta group, it must be said that now Mark Zuckerberg’s company is well known and is the subject of multiple checks, probably much more than many of its competitors.
TechCrunch says the complaint was directed “the processing by the platforms of children’s data for professional accounts and on a user registration system that they managed”. Previously, the default setting for child accounts was “public”, which opened them up to advertising unwanted and posed other security risks.
Meta just reacted
We are not going to hide it, even with billions of dollars in turnover per quarter, a fine of 405 million euros still hurts, because it is money that cannot be paid in salaries or injected into ongoing projects within Meta.
The group took the time to respond via one of its spokespersons:
This survey focused on old settings that we updated over a year ago, and we’ve since released many new features to keep teens safe and their information private. Anyone under 18 automatically has their account set to private when they join Instagram, so only people they know can see what they post, and adults can’t message teenagers who don’t follow them. We have engaged fully with the CPD throughout their investigation, and we are carefully reviewing their final decision.
We can applaud Instagram’s initiatives to protect children’s data, unfortunately the violation of EU rules lasted for long time which explains this painful condemnation.
The Meta Group could have other surprises from this Irish Commission, 6 other surveys concerning Mark Zuckerberg’s business are ongoing.
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