Instagram has reportedly been fined €405 million by Irish regulators for violating children's privacy. As per the BBC report. it was a long-running complaint concern, particularly for children's data - in relation to their phone numbers and email addresses.
It was stated that some users reportedly upgraded to business accounts in order to get access to the analytics tools like profile visits, but failed to realise that this made more of their data public.
Meta has further stated that it has planned to appeal against the decision. This is the third fine which has been handed to the company by the regulator so far.
Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) said, "We adopted our final decision last Friday and it does contain a fine of €405m [£349m]."
Post speaking to the Meta official, BBC reported: "This inquiry focused on old settings that we updated over a year ago and we've since released many new features to help keep teens safe and their information private.
They further said: "Anyone under 18 automatically has their account set to private when they join Instagram, so only people they know can see what they post and adults can't message teens who don't follow them. While we've engaged fully with the DPC throughout their inquiry, we disagree with how this fine was calculated and intend to appeal it.
"We're continuing to carefully review the rest of the decision."
What is the major breach?
The Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has regulated largely technology companies with European headquarters in the Republic of Ireland.
It was further stated that Ireland authorities have never fined such a huge fine for a data breach of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation to date.
But in 2021, the authorities fined WhatsApp €225m, whereas, Luxembourg's data authority fined Amazon a record amount of €746 million.
Also, it was stated in a BBC report that Andy Burrows, the head of child-safety-online policy at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) said: "This was a major breach that had significant safeguarding implications and the potential to cause real harm to children using Instagram.
He added: "The ruling demonstrates how effective enforcement can protect children on social media and underlines how regulation is already making children safer online.
"It's now over to the new prime minister to keep the promise to give children the strongest possible protections by delivering the Online Safety Bill in full and without delay."
Inputs from BBC
