Irish watchdog fines Meta 17 million euros for data breach

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's data regulator on Tuesday said it was imposing a 17 million euro ($18.7 million) fine on Facebook parent Meta Platforms after an inquiry into 12 data breach notifications

March 15, 2022

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s data regulator on Tuesday said it was imposing a 17 million euro ($18.7 million) fine on Facebook parent Meta Platforms after an inquiry into 12 data breach notifications the regulator received in 2018. 

The country’s Data Protection Commissioner said it had found that “Meta Platforms failed to have in place appropriate technical and organisational measures which would enable it to readily demonstrate the security measures that it implemented in practice to protect EU users’ data”.

Ireland regulates Meta and a number of other large U.S. Internet giants because their European Union headquarters are in the country.

The Data Protection Commissioner, which has a number of ongoing investigations into Meta, last year fined its WhatsApp subsidiary a record 225 million euros for failing to conform with EU data rules in 2018.

A spokesperson for Meta said that it would “carefully consider Tuesday’s decision”, adding that its “processes continue to evolve”.

“This fine is about record-keeping practices from 2018 that we have since (been) updated, not a failure to protect people’s information,” the spokesperson said.

($1 = 0.9103 euros)

(Reporting by Graham Fahy and Conor Humphries; Editing by David Goodman)