LONDON: A 265 million euro ($277 million) fine was levied against Facebook parent company Meta by Irish regulators on Monday, the latest repercussion for the firm's violations of stringent European Union data privacy laws.
The General Data Protection Regulation, a set of EU regulations that mandates technical and organisational measures aimed at protecting user data, was allegedly violated by Meta Platforms, according to the Data Protection Commission.
The watchdog began an investigation into news reports that user data for more than 533 million people had been discovered online last year.
According to reports, the information was discovered on a website for hackers and included names, Facebook IDs, phone numbers, addresses, birthdates, and email addresses of individuals from more than 100 different countries.
Meta said the data had been "scraped" from Facebook using tools designed to help people find their friends through phone numbers using search and contact import features. The watchdog said it investigated the automated scraping carried out between May 2018 and September 2019.
The company said it had "cooperated fully" with the Irish watchdog.
"We made changes to our systems during the time in question, including removing the ability to scrape our features in this way using phone numbers," Meta said in a statement. "Unauthorized data scraping is unacceptable and against our rules."
Along with the fine, the commission said it also imposed on Meta a "range of corrective measures," which weren’t specified.
When asked if Meta would appeal, a spokesman said, "We are still reviewing this decision carefully."
It’s the latest in a series of punishments that the Irish watchdog has levied against Meta over the past two years.
The company, based in Menlo Park, California, has its European headquarters in Dublin, which makes the Irish authority the lead privacy regulator under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, in a system known as a "one-stop shop."
The Irish watchdog fined Meta-owned Instagram 405 million euros in September after finding that the platform mishandled teenagers’ personal information. Meta was fined 17 million euros in March for its handling of a dozen data breach notifications.
Last year, the watchdog fined Meta’s chat service WhatsApp 225 million euros for violating rules on sharing people’s data with other Meta companies.