EU issues €390 million fine to Meta for breaching privacy laws 

Meta has been fined €390 million euros for breaching EU data rules and will need to make significant changes to the way it collects and uses data going forward. 

The case against Meta was led by The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). For this case, the DPC will ensure that Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, complies with EU laws. 

Complaints were recently made following the introduction of the EU’s new data and privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These are some of the strictest privacy laws in the world and have meant that Meta and other Big Tech companies have faced more pressure. 

The case against Meta claims that the way the platform asks for permission to use data for ads on Facebook and Instagram is against EU law. According to the DPC, Meta is effectively forcing users to consent to Meta’s data policies and if they don’t, they aren’t able to use the platforms.

In light of this, Meta has now been fined and has three months to change the way it collects and uses data for targeted ads. Meta will need to give users a choice about how their data is used.  

The ruling could mean that Meta needs to make major changes to its business model, as currently, the bulk of its profits come from advertising revenue. 

Meta says that it plans to appeal the DPC’s decision, arguing that personalization and targeted ads are a “necessary and essential part” of how the two platforms operate and there’s no way they could work properly without using users’ data for advertising purposes. 

However, the DPC has found that this was not the case and that users were being made to consent to the data policies. Additionally, the regulator found that Meta wasn’t clear enough when communicating with users about how their data was used.