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405 Million Euro fine on Instagram over Children’s Privacy

 

Meta was fined 405 million euros because of its social network Instagram, and all because of the management of children’s privacy settings, which represented a violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. This is the second largest fine stemming from EU GDPR laws and the third (and largest) fine imposed on Meta by the Data Protection Commission.

The fine stems from Instagram’s privacy settings on accounts managed by children. The regulator investigated the social network about the use of business accounts by children, which made personal data such as email addresses and phone numbers publicly visible. The investigation also focused on Instagram’s policy of making all new accounts, including teens, publicly available by default.

“This research focused on old settings that we updated more than a year ago, and since then we’ve released many new features to help keep teens safe and their information private,” said a spokesperson for Meta. “Anyone under the age of 18 automatically has their account set to private when they sign up for Instagram, so only people they know can see what they post, and adults can’t message teens who don’t follow them. We are fully involved. with the regulator throughout the investigation and we are carefully reviewing its final decision.”

Meta can still appeal this decision by the Irish regulator, but as of this writing, it has not yet done so.

 

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