Meta hit with document $1.3 billion tremendous by EU over dealing with of Fb customers’ private knowledge

London — Meta was fined the equal of a document $1.3 billion by the European Union on Monday for its switch of customers’ private knowledge from Europe to america.

Andrea Jelinek, chair of the European Information Safety Board (EDPB), stated Meta’s infringement was “very severe because it issues transfers which can be systematic, repetitive and steady.”

“Fb has thousands and thousands of customers in Europe, so the amount of non-public knowledge transferred is huge,” Jelinek stated in a statement. “The unprecedented tremendous is a robust sign to organizations that severe infringements have far-reaching penalties.”

Meta was additionally ordered to deliver its knowledge transfers into compliance with European privateness regulation. It was given 5 months to cease transferring EU customers’ knowledge to america and 6 months to cease storing European residents’ private knowledge within the U.S. that had beforehand been transferred in violation of EU privateness rules, the Monetary Occasions newspaper reported.

The tech large stated it might attraction the ruling and argued there was a problematic conflict between U.S. and European privateness rules.

“With out the flexibility to switch knowledge throughout borders, the web dangers being carved up into nationwide and regional silos, proscribing the worldwide economic system and leaving residents in numerous nations unable to entry lots of the shared companies we’ve come to depend on,” Meta stated in a statement.

The last decade-long battle over the place Fb knowledge is saved started after the disclosures of former Nationwide Safety Company contractor Edward Snowden prompted an Austrian privateness campaigner to deliver a authorized problem over potential U.S. intelligence gathering in Europe, the Reuters information company reported.

Final month, Meta stated that it anticipated a brand new settlement over EU-US knowledge transfers to come back into impact earlier than it has to droop them, Reuters reported.

Haley Ott

Haley Ott is a global reporter for CBS Information based mostly in London.