The Irish Data Protection Commission fined Meta €251 million ($263.6 million) for GDPR violations related to a 2018 data breach that affected 29 million Facebook accounts.
The breach occurred when unauthorized parties exploited user access tokens, exposing sensitive information like names, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical locations, including data on children.
“This enforcement action highlights how the failure to build in data protection requirements throughout the design and development cycle can expose individuals to very serious risks and harms, including a risk to the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals,” commented Graham Doyle, the DPC’s Deputy Commissioner.
The DPC will soon publish the full decision for public insight.
Meta said media that, “This decision relates to an incident from 2018. We took immediate action to fix the problem as soon as it was identified, and we proactively informed the people impacted, as well as the Irish Data Protection Commission,”
“We have a wide range of industry-leading measures in place to protect people across our platforms.”
Meta settles in Australia
Meta has agreed to a $50 million settlement for Australian Facebook users affected by the Cambridge Analytica incident, according to the Australian Information Commissioner.
The settlement addresses privacy violations under the Privacy Act 1988 related to data shared with the This is Your Digital Life app, which may have been misused for political profiling.
Australians with Facebook accounts from November 2, 2013, to December 17, 2015, who spent over 30 days in Australia and either installed the Your Digital Life app or befriended someone who did may qualify for compensation.
“We settled on a no admissions basis, as it is in the best interest of our community and shareholders that we close this chapter on allegations that relate to past practices no longer relevant to how Meta’s products or systems work today. We look forward to continuing to build services Australians love and trust with privacy at the forefront,” Meta told BleepingComputer.