Instagram was slapped with a $402 million privacy fine – the second-largest in the European Union’s history — for allegedly mishandling children’s data, as the bloc ratchets up enforcement action of its privacy law, according to The Wall Street Journal.
On Monday, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said that it fined Instagram parent company Meta Platforms Inc. for potentially revealing more of the contact information of minors who operated business accounts on the social media site than personal accounts.
The Irish data regulator told the Journal that it finalized the decision, including the fine, after making changes requested by an organization that represents all of the EU’s privacy regulators. The commission manages the bloc’s privacy enforcement for Meta and other tech companies with Emerald Isle European headquarters.
Meta told the news outlet that the decision was based on previous settings that it updated more than a year ago and that it plans to appeal the fine.
Instagram displayed business users’ contact information by default until it was made optional in 2019, according to Meta. Minors’ accounts are also automatically set to private when they join the platform, the company said.
This is not the first time Instagram has come under fire for its handling of data about children.
The company faced intense criticism and investigations were launched when the Journal previously reported that Instagram’s own research found it was damaging for teenage girls with body-image issues. It later stopped development of an Instagram app for children.
California lawmakers passed a bill last week that would mandate social media app creators take the physical and mental health of minors into account when designing their products. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has not yet signed the bill into law.
While the Instagram fine totals approximately 1% of Meta’s net income last year, it might herald additional EU privacy decisions with more potential to compel many Big Tech companies to change their data-collection practices. The ripple effects could be felt in the digital advertising and social media industries.
According to the Journal, Ireland has 37 other privacy cases involving Big Tech companies pending, including a case examining if Meta has the right to collect certain types of user information as a condition of using the platform.
At the same time, EU regulators have been taking a more aggressive stance on enforcing its General Data Protection Regulation, after privacy activists have complained that regulators are too slow to act.
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