Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has been fined €265m (£228m) by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC).
The fines are linked to a data breach that exposed the personal information of hundreds of millions of Facebook users online.
An online hacking forum has exposed the phone numbers and email addresses of up to 533 million users.
The DPC launched an investigation in April 2021.
Facebook said at the time that the information had been publicly available online for several years and had been “scraped” by malicious actors using vulnerabilities in the tool prior to September 2019. He said it wasn’t hacked.
“Scraping” uses automated software to steal public information from the Internet and can be distributed in online forums.
However, the DPC found that Meta violated Article 25 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon said, “Because this data set was so large, because there had been previous instances of scraping on the platform, where the issues could have been identified in a more timely way, we ultimately imposed a significant sanction.”
“The risks are considerable for individuals in terms of scamming, spamming, smishing, phishing and loss of control over their personal data so we imposed a fine of €265m in total.”
Alongside the fine, Meta was issued a reprimand and order requiring it to comply with its treatment by taking a set of specified corrective actions within a specified period of time.
A spokesman for the company said:
“Protecting the privacy and security of people’s data is fundamental to how our business works. That’s why we have cooperated fully with the Irish Data Protection Commission on this important issue.
“We made changes to our systems during the time in question, including removing the ability to scrape our features in this way using phone numbers.
“Unauthorised data scraping is unacceptable and against our rules and we will continue working with our peers on this industry challenge. We are reviewing this decision carefully.”
In September, Meta appealed to the High Court against a record €405 million fine imposed on Instagram by the DPC.
This is the largest fine ever imposed by the Irish data regulator and was imposed for breaches related to the processing of children’s data.
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