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Facebook owner Meta Platforms is facing a potentially record-breaking fine from a European Union privacy watchdog after the social media giant was identified mishandling user data during its transfer to the US.
According to two sources close to the case, the Ireland Data Privacy Commission is expected to slap Meta with a fine that will exceed the current record fine that Amazon received in 2021 of €746 million (roughly $1.21 billion) after it also failed to uphold the EU’s privacy standards.
The exact amount that Meta will be fined has not yet been disclosed, but the commission’s ruling is set to be released early next week and is likely to include additional requirements for Meta to stop using insecure methods to transfer EU data to the US.
A ban of the legal tool that Meta used to transfer the data is being developed by EU watchdogs led by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon, due to the concerns that US intelligence agencies could access the data.
The concern was first rained a decade ago, when infamous former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden revealed that US authorities had accessed personal information through major tech corporations such as Google and Facebook.
The EU has said multiple times that the US does not have adequate measures to protect the personal information of EU citizens.
The US has since introduced new legal measures to reassure the EU that intelligence agencies will follow strict procedures around data access.
The latest fine comes just months after the Ireland Data Protection Commission handed Meta’s Facebook and Instagram social media services massive fines for breaches of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Facebook received a fine of €210 million (roughly $340.8 million), while Instagram was hit with €180 million (roughly $292.1 million).
Prior to that, Meta was issued a €265 million (roughly $430 million) after Facebook suffered a data breach affecting 500 million users.
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