Meta — the owner of popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram — has been fined €390 million (roughly $414 million) by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) for violating EU data policies. The regulator has found the way that Meta asks for users’ permission to use their data for targeted advertisements on Facebook and Instagram to be illegal. Mark Zuckerberg-owned Meta now has a period of three months to alter its targeted ads practices.
The DPC said that Meta’s platforms can not forcefully take consent from users, as they were asked to either accept the data usage practice or leave the platforms entirely. The Irish regulator gets to take the lead on EU law enforcement cases as both Facebook and Instagram are headquartered in Ireland to oversee their European operations.
The social media giant has said that it is “disappointed” with the ruling and that it plans to appeal. Meta also claimed that the DPC ruling doesn’t apply to personal ads on its platforms.
Meta’s Communication Director Andy Stone shared a blog on Meta’s stance on the usage of legal bases for processing ads in the EU region. He tweeted, "...these decisions do not prevent personalized advertising on our platform. The decisions relate only to which legal basis Meta uses when offering certain advertising."
The decision has been hailed as a major win by privacy advocates, who believe that Meta will now have to offer its users a proper choice over how their data is used to target online ads.
This would also signal a major blow to Meta, whose bulk of earnings comes from ads, to the tune of over $118 billion (as of 2021).
Earlier in November last year, Meta was fined over $281 million over a data breach that leaked information of millions of Facebook users online.