January 5, 2023
Meta Platforms has been fined €390 million (approximately $414 million) by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) for its handling of user data for serving personalized ads.
The fines mark the end of two lengthy investigations into Meta by the Irish regulator, which had been chastised for the process’s delays. The DPC started looking into the company on May 25, 2018, the day the EU’s GDPR went into effect.
Meta was fined 210 million euros for violations of the European Union’s strict data privacy rules involving Facebook, and another 180 million euros for breaches involving Instagram, according to the watchdog.
The fines are punishments for Meta for data privacy violations, and they follow four other fines totaling more than 900 million euros for the company since 2021.
The ruling means that Meta can no longer rely on contracts as a legal basis for processing personal data for behavioral advertising, effectively making the company’s advertising practices illegal.
Meta has stated that it intends to appeal the decision. The decision does not constitute a ban on personalized advertising, and businesses can continue to target users with ads through Meta’s platforms, according to the company.
The sources for this piece include an article in CBSNews.
