Facebook’s parent firm just received a whopping record-breaking fine worth $1.3 billion (or €1.2 billion) for carrying out data transfers across the US of data belonging to EU citizens.
The company has also been warned against carrying out such behavior again, new reports went on to add. Moreover, courts in the European Union also explained in detail how such maneuvers end up putting the data of EU citizens at risk as they’re completely exposed and break all privacy rules too.
These types of complaints go all the way back to the year 2013 and that’s when the shocking allegations came forward by a whistleblower who blew the lid on the startling behavior of the tech giant and how it was engaging in huge surveillance programs without any check and balance in place.
Such a ruling came forward by the DPC recently and that mentioned how the current findings were against the framework laid down for the transfer of data toward America. It similarly failed to address the huge risks involved in terms of protecting users’ fights and their freedom to express themselves on the popular app of Facebook, which is obviously under Meta’s ownership.
The fine is certainly being called as one of the biggest and most historic of its kind and one that Meta would certainly not be pleased with. It has broken past records that had been made by the EU against tech firm Amazon for again violating privacy rules set out for the company.
Exchanging data to America is an integral component of Meta’s functioning of advertising operations. And that is totally related to the processing of data of billions of users.
In the year 2022, we saw the tech firm mentioning how it would be thinking along the lines of closing both of its leading apps across the European Union region, in case it was barred from transferring data to America. And as you can imagine, this warning was one that politicians in this region looked at as an imminent threat.
The tech giant simply stands in no position to blackmail a huge regulatory body like the EU that is in charge of so many different nations that Meta caters to, as confirmed by experts in the industry. The EU revealed how it would be stepping up action against all those violating its rules as zero compromises would be made for those taking privacy and data protection for granted.
So when Meta did threaten to leave, there was no heed given as people knew that this decision would put the tech giant at a huge loss, more than anyone else.
Meta is now at a standstill and would not be allowed to carry out any data transfers to the US from the EU. But we need to understand that this solely applies to the data of users who make use of Facebook and not any other leading app under its ownership. So that must be a relief.
Read next: Meta Gears Up To Launch Its New Twitter Competitor With Selected Creators
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World
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