Ireland fines Meta $400 million for GDPR violations

The Irish Data Protection Commission has fined Meta $400 million for violations while collecting and processing user data for targeted advertising.

The regulator believes that the company forced users to agree to the processing of their data on Instagram and Facebook. The fines were the result of two complaints filed back in 2018, the ruling said.

Personal data compliance on Facebook and Instagram

The company was accused of non-compliance with the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The new law was adopted in the same year. Still, despite this, Meta continued to require users to agree to data processing in the user agreement.

In complaints filed in 2018, it was stated that this is tantamount to forcing consent to targeted advertising.

Irish regulator’s decision

The Irish regulator decided that the company must clearly explain all the conditions to users. After consultation with the European Data Protection Board, it was agreed that such consent could not protect against such violations. 

In addition to the fines imposed, Meta was obliged to bring its services in line with GDPR requirements within three months.

Meta does not plan to comply with the decision

Meta strongly disagrees with this decision and plans to appeal it. The company’s representatives also stated that this would not prevent services from showing targeted advertising, CNBC reported.

We are exploring various options on how to continue to offer users our personalized service, – Meta said in a statement.

This is not the first fine for Meta for processing personal data. The company was fined $402 million in September for processing teenagers’ information. In November, it was ordered to pay $276 million for a data leak in 2021.