Meta has been hit with a file $1.3 billion superb by the European Union for breaching knowledge switch legal guidelines.
What occurred. Fb transferred the information of EU residents to the U.S., violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), based on the Irish Knowledge Safety Fee. Meta’s European headquarters are in Dublin.
What the ruling means for Meta. Meta has been given 5 months to cease future transfers of private knowledge to the U.S. and 6 months to stop illegal processing and storage of EU/EEA customers’ knowledge within the U.S., based on the ruling.
Why we care. If the ruling is put in place, Fb must delete an enormous quantity of knowledge and restructure its IT techniques at a really elementary stage. It additionally would have monumental implications for any firm transferring knowledge between the 2 areas.
Solely Fb. The choice applies solely to Fb and never different Meta-owned platforms (e.g., Instagram).
What Meta is saying. The corporate plans to enchantment, Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of world affairs, and Jennifer Newstead, its chief authorized officer, said in a statement:
- “This determination is flawed, unjustified and units a harmful precedent for the numerous different firms transferring knowledge between the EU and U.S.”
A battle of legal guidelines. The perfect hope for staying the ruling is a brand new knowledge switch treaty between the U.S. and the EU.
Till 2020, these transfers had been protected by the Privateness Defend treaty between the 2 governments. That yr the EU’s highest court docket invalidated the treaty by ruling it didn’t sufficiently shield EU residents’ knowledge from American spy companies.
Negotiations have been underway because the excessive court docket’s ruling. Final yr, President Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union, introduced the outlines of a deal, however the particulars are nonetheless being hammered out.
This determination could enhance the stress on the U.S. to get it completed. Nonetheless, the complexity of the problems makes it tough to maneuver rapidly.
