Dublin: Ireland’s data privacy regulator imposed a record fine of 405 million euros ($402 million) on Instagram following an investigation into its handling of children’s data.
Meanwhile, Instagram’s parent company ‘Meta Platforms Inc’ plans to appeal against the fine.
The spokesperson for Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, the lead regulator of Instagram and Facebook’s (FB) parent company, has confirmed about imposing fine to international news agency Reuters.
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“We adopted our final decision last Friday and it does contain a fine of 405 million euro,” the spokesperson said, adding that full details of the decision will be published next week.
According to the news agency report, the investigation, which started in 2020, focused on child users between the ages of 13 and 17 who were allowed to operate business accounts, which facilitated the publication of the user’s phone number and/or email address.
Instagram updated its settings over a year ago and has since released new features to keep teens safe and their information private, the Meta spokesperson said.
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The DPC regulates tech giants including Facebook, Apple, Google and others due to the location of their EU headquarters in Ireland. It has opened over a dozen investigations into Meta companies, including Facebook and WhatsApp, the report stated.
Last year, WhatsApp was fined a record 225 million euros for not complying with European Union data rules in 2018.
