Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has issued the largest fine under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation privacy law to Meta, formerly known as Facebook. The company plans to appeal against the “unjustified and unnecessary” ruling. The fine was imposed due to Meta’s use of standard contractual clauses (SCCs) to transfer European Union data to the US.
While these legal contracts contain safeguards to protect personal data, concerns have been raised about the exposure of Europeans to weaker US privacy laws and the potential access of US intelligence to the data. It should be noted that this fine has not affected Facebook in the United Kingdom.
The Commissioner of the Information Office said that they have noted the details and the decision but as of now it won’t be applied in the United Kingdom. Meta has marked this case as a dangerous precedent. This is because the company holds a huge amount of data through the web transfers. And the broad use of data is definitely making the fine unfair.
Nick Clegg, the President of Facebook, said “We are therefore disappointed to have been singled out when using the same legal mechanism as thousands of other companies looking to provide services in Europe. This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and US.”