Meta has copped one other big fantastic from regulators, with the European Knowledge Safety Board (EDPU) hitting Meta with a €1.2 billion penalty – equal to $1.3 billion USD – for transferring EU person information again to the US with out specific permission or sufficient protections in place.
The fantastic, the most important of its type in historical past, pertains to Meta’s information transfers since 2020, when the EU applied its extra stringent GDPR laws. The GDPR offers customers extra management over their private information and the way it’s used, and its implementation meant that Meta would wish to take extra definitive measures to guard EU citizen data.
Meta has repeatedly famous that its laws on this entrance are spelled out inside its Phrases of Service, however Austrian privateness campaigner Max Schrems argued that this was not in compliance with the intent of the EU coverage, and subsequently uncovered EU customers to information surveillance within the US, thus breaking worldwide regulation, and resulting in this newest fantastic.
Meta has additionally been ordered to carry its information transfers into compliance with the GDPR, or face potential suspension within the area.
As per EDPU:
“The EDPB discovered that Meta IE’s infringement may be very critical because it issues transfers which might be systematic, repetitive and steady. Fb has tens of millions of customers in Europe, so the quantity of non-public information transferred is huge. The unprecedented fantastic is a powerful sign to organizations that critical infringements have far-reaching penalties.”
In response, Meta has mentioned that it’s going to enchantment the choice, whereas additionally highlighting the dangers of fragmenting the online on account of this method.
“With out the flexibility to switch information throughout borders, the web dangers being carved up into nationwide and regional silos, limiting the worldwide economic system and leaving residents in several international locations unable to entry lots of the shared companies now we have come to depend on. That’s why offering a sound authorized foundation for the switch of knowledge between the EU and the US has been a political precedence on each side of the Atlantic for a few years.”
Meta says that it has been working in good religion with EU regulators on a new Knowledge Privateness Framework, which might allow a extra collaborative decision to the difficulty, whereas additionally recognizing that Meta has acted in good religion in complying with present legal guidelines.
However now, Meta says, the EDPU has gone in opposition to this, in issuing a fantastic primarily based on what it claims is an unfair studying of its efforts.
It’s a serious blow for the corporate, at a time when it’s already reeling from the worldwide downturn in advert spend, and restrictions on information assortment on account of Apple’s iOS 14 replace. Meta’s culled hundreds of jobs over the previous yr, and you may solely think about that this new fantastic will solely squeeze the corporate additional, because it continues to make investments closely in Zuckerberg’s metaverse imaginative and prescient.
And the ache might not be over for Meta but. Along with right now’s fantastic, Meta can also be up for civil litigation, attributable to an upcoming change in EU regulation, whereas it might additionally face one more vital loss in advert income on account of any suspensions which will stem from this ruling.
As such, it’s no shock to see Meta difficult the fantastic. However authorized specialists don’t see any possible way for Meta to keep away from paying, or settling with the EU to a major diploma.
It’s additionally attention-grabbing from a knowledge switch perspective, amid broader debate round TikTok’s potential hyperlinks to the Chinese language Authorities. As Meta notes, shifts like this danger splintering the web, and siloing off totally different areas into their very own on-line fiefdoms, which might make future interplay extra restricted.
That may very well be the top results of rulings like this – although it’s price additionally noting that Zuckerberg himself has, previously, made efforts to get TikTok restricted within the US on comparable grounds (although Zuckerberg has since famous that banning the app would set a ‘actually unhealthy long-term precedent’).
The following step might be a protracted courtroom battle, as Meta seeks to scale back the penalty. However finally, it does appear that Meta must pay, whereas it’ll additionally have to replace its EU insurance policies consistent with the ruling.
