Sometimes, I have to wonder if Meta who owns Facebook really wants to play by the rules as they seem to have the attitude that it’s only illegal if they get caught. Here’s an example of that. Apparently Meta has been shipping Facebook data that is tied to the EU to the US. The EU wasn’t thrilled about that and has lowered the boom on the company. Big time:
The European Union slapped Meta the privacy fine on Monday and ordered it to stop transferring user data across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decade-long case sparked by US cybersnooping fears.
The penalty fine from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) after a three-year probe into the social media giant is the biggest since the EU’s strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago, surpassing Amazon’s $807million penalty in 2021 for data protection violations.
The DPC said that Meta had breached part of the European GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) rules in the way that it had moved data of Facebook users across borders.
It ordered Meta Ireland to ‘suspend any future transfer of personal data to the US within the period of five months’ and also levied a record fine on the business ‘to sanction the infringement that was found to have occurred’.
That fine is far from trivial. Even for Meta. And this fine clearly this got their attention based on this response from the company:
Meta, which had previously warned that services for its users in Europe could be cut off, vowed to appeal and ask courts to immediately put the decision on hold.
‘There is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe,’ the company said.
‘This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and US,’ Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global and affairs, and Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead said in a statement.
‘We are … disappointed to have been singled out when using the same legal mechanism as thousands of other companies looking to provide services in Europe,’ the statement added.
It continued: ‘We are pleased that the DPC also confirmed in its decision that there will be no suspension of the transfers or other action required of Meta, such as a requirement to delete EU data subjects’ data once the underlying conflict of law has been resolved.
‘No country has done more than the US to align with European rules via their latest reforms, while transfers continue largely unchallenged to countries such as China.’
That last sentence is a reference to TikTok by the way. And to make their case, Meta has put out a blog post to tell its side of the story. But here’s the core issue in my mind. Personal privacy is a human right. And Meta’s whole business model is based on the violation of users personal privacy. The company has no way to pivot away from that a they know it. Thus fines like these and demands that they change their business practices are threats to their business that they have to fight. That explains why you’re seeing such a strong response from Zuckerberg and company. And you can fully expect that if they fight back, the EU will find new and creative ways to twist the screws on Meta until they have to make a call about staying in the EU as there is zero chance that they will alter how they do business in the EU.
This will be interesting to watch.
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This entry was posted on May 22, 2023 at 8:12 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Facebook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Meta Fined $1.3 Billion By The EU For Sending EU Facebook Data To The US
Sometimes, I have to wonder if Meta who owns Facebook really wants to play by the rules as they seem to have the attitude that it’s only illegal if they get caught. Here’s an example of that. Apparently Meta has been shipping Facebook data that is tied to the EU to the US. The EU wasn’t thrilled about that and has lowered the boom on the company. Big time:
The European Union slapped Meta the privacy fine on Monday and ordered it to stop transferring user data across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decade-long case sparked by US cybersnooping fears.
The penalty fine from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) after a three-year probe into the social media giant is the biggest since the EU’s strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago, surpassing Amazon’s $807million penalty in 2021 for data protection violations.
The DPC said that Meta had breached part of the European GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) rules in the way that it had moved data of Facebook users across borders.
It ordered Meta Ireland to ‘suspend any future transfer of personal data to the US within the period of five months’ and also levied a record fine on the business ‘to sanction the infringement that was found to have occurred’.
That fine is far from trivial. Even for Meta. And this fine clearly this got their attention based on this response from the company:
Meta, which had previously warned that services for its users in Europe could be cut off, vowed to appeal and ask courts to immediately put the decision on hold.
‘There is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe,’ the company said.
‘This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and US,’ Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global and affairs, and Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead said in a statement.
‘We are … disappointed to have been singled out when using the same legal mechanism as thousands of other companies looking to provide services in Europe,’ the statement added.
It continued: ‘We are pleased that the DPC also confirmed in its decision that there will be no suspension of the transfers or other action required of Meta, such as a requirement to delete EU data subjects’ data once the underlying conflict of law has been resolved.
‘No country has done more than the US to align with European rules via their latest reforms, while transfers continue largely unchallenged to countries such as China.’
That last sentence is a reference to TikTok by the way. And to make their case, Meta has put out a blog post to tell its side of the story. But here’s the core issue in my mind. Personal privacy is a human right. And Meta’s whole business model is based on the violation of users personal privacy. The company has no way to pivot away from that a they know it. Thus fines like these and demands that they change their business practices are threats to their business that they have to fight. That explains why you’re seeing such a strong response from Zuckerberg and company. And you can fully expect that if they fight back, the EU will find new and creative ways to twist the screws on Meta until they have to make a call about staying in the EU as there is zero chance that they will alter how they do business in the EU.
This will be interesting to watch.
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This entry was posted on May 22, 2023 at 8:12 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Facebook. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.