\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday and ordered it to stop transferring users personal information across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears.<\/p>\n
The penalty of 1.2 billion euros is the biggest since the EU\u2019s strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago, surpassing Amazon\u2019s 746 million euro fine in 2021 for data protection violations.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The company said \u201cthere is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe.\u201d The decision applies to user data like names, email and IP addresses, messages, viewing history, geolocation data and other information that Meta \u2014 and other tech giants like Google \u2014 use for targeted online ads.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and U.S.,\u201d Nick Clegg, Meta\u2019s president of global affairs, and chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s yet another twist in a legal battle that began in 2013 when Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems filed a complaint about Facebook\u2019s handling of his data following former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden\u2019s revelations of electronic surveillance by U.S. security agencies. That included the disclosure that Facebook gave the agencies access to the personal data of Europeans.<\/p>\n
The saga has highlighted the clash between Washington and Brussels over the differences between Europe\u2019s strict view on data privacy and the comparatively lax regime in the U.S., which lacks a federal privacy law. The EU has been a global leader in reining in the power of Big Tech with a series of regulations forcing them police their platforms more strictly and protect users\u2019 personal information.<\/p>\n
An agreement covering EU-U.S. data transfers known as the Privacy Shield was struck down in 2020 by the EU\u2019s top court, which said it didn\u2019t do enough to protect residents from the U.S. government\u2019s electronic prying. Monday\u2019s decision confirmed that another tool to govern data transfers \u2014 stock legal contracts \u2014 was also invalid.<\/p>\n
Brussels and Washington signed a deal last year on a reworked Privacy Shield that Meta could use, but the pact is awaiting a decision from European officials on whether it adequately protects data privacy.<\/p>\n
EU institutions have been reviewing the agreement, and the bloc\u2019s lawmakers this month called for improvements, saying the safeguards aren\u2019t strong enough.<\/p>\n
The Ireland\u2019s Data Protection Commission handed down the fine as Meta\u2019s lead privacy regulator in the 27-nation bloc because the Silicon Valley tech giant\u2019s European headquarters is based in Dublin.<\/p>\n
The Irish watchdog said it gave Meta five months to stop sending European user data to the U.S. and six months to bring its data operations into compliance \u201cby ceasing the unlawful processing, including storage, in the U.S.\u201d of European users\u2019 personal data transferred in violation of the bloc\u2019s privacy rules.<\/p>\n
If the new transatlantic privacy agreement takes effect before these deadlines, \u201cour services can continue as they do today without any disruption or impact on users,\u201d Meta said.<\/p>\n
Schrems predicted that Meta has \u201cno real chance\u201d of getting the decision materially overturned. And a new privacy pact might not mean the end of Meta\u2019s troubles, because there\u2019s a good chance it could be tossed out by the EU\u2019s top court, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeta plans to rely on the new deal for transfers going forward, but this is likely not a permanent fix,\u201d Schrems said in a statement. \u201cUnless U.S. surveillance laws gets fixed, Meta will likely have to keep EU data in the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meta warned in its latest earnings report that without a legal basis for data transfers, it will be forced to stop offering its products and services in Europe, \u201cwhich would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The social media company might have to carry out a costly and complex revamp of its operations if it\u2019s forced to stop shipping user data across the Atlantic. Meta has a fleet of 21 data centers, according to its website, but 17 of them are in the United States. Three others are in the European nations of Denmark, Ireland and Sweden. Another is in Singapore.<\/p>\n
Other social media giants are facing pressure over their data practices. TikTok has tried to soothe Western fears about the Chinese-owned short video sharing app\u2019s potential cybersecurity risks with a $1.5 billion project to store U.S. user data on Oracle servers.<\/p>\n
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LONDON (AP) \u2014 The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday and ordered it to stop transferring users personal information across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears. The penalty of 1.2 billion euros is the biggest since the EU\u2019s strict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-216791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}