Instagram receives a record €405 million fine in the EU
We adopted our final decision last Friday and it provides for a fine of EUR 405 million.
“Details will be published next week,” a representative of the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) told AFP.
The move is the most severe inflicted by the authority since 2018, when the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) empowered regulators to protect consumers from the dominance of Facebook, Google, Apple and Twitter.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the equivalent of the French Cnil, oversees Facebook on behalf of the EU, as Facebook has its regional headquarters in Ireland
The regulator launched an investigation in late 2020 to determine whether the app had adequate safeguards in place to protect users’ data, especially minors, when it takes at least 13 years to register on Instagram.
In particular, the DPC was concerned that users under the age of 18 could too easily switch to a business account. This type of account requires users to make their contact details public, which means they are visible to everyone on the social network.
The regulator also criticized Instagram for the fact that the content of the minors’ accounts was opened by default at certain times to all users and not restricted to only approved subscribers.
A spokesperson for Meta told the RTE media that the group intends to appeal, pointing out that the investigation had looked at adjustments that had been changed over the past year, France 24 report.
