Ireland fined Instagram $402 million for data leaks.
The media reported that “Instagram” was fined by the European Regulatory and Radio Communications Organization in Ireland for disclosing the information of teenage users.
The Irish Broadcasting Regulatory Authority fined Instagram on Monday for misusing the personal information of teenage users.
According to the “Associated Press” news agency, the Irish Data Protection Commission made the final decision on Monday for the $402 million fine of Meta, the owner of Instagram. The full details of this issue will be published in the coming days.
The penalty is the second largest fine imposed under the EU’s strict privacy laws. Last year, Luxembourg lawmakers fined the American company “Amazon” 746 million euros.
The Irish watchdog researched in this field and found out that Instagram discloses the personal information of users between the ages of 13 and 17, including their email addresses and phone numbers. This is despite the fact that the minimum age for Instagram users is 13 years.
The Associated Press declined to elaborate on how Instagram disclosed this personal information and to whom it provided it.
Under EU data privacy laws, Dublin, Ireland is the European headquarters for monitoring the activities of US technology companies.
Last year, the Irish-based organization fined messaging app WhatsApp €225 million for violating transparency rules about sharing people’s data with other Meta companies.
According to this report, the Irish authorities have long asked the Meta company not to transfer the data of the citizens of this country to the United States. Aerova Union is also strongly in favor of keeping the data of users living in this continent.
Recently, by studying the performance of Facebook and Instagram, a researcher came to the conclusion that these two social networks track users through in-app browsers.
