Instagram was fined $402 million for mishandling teens’ data in the EU
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has fined Meta €405 million (about $402 million) after an investigation into how it handled teenagers’ data. The decision and fine were finalized last Friday, DPC spokesperson Caolmhe McGuire tells The Verge, and “full details of the decision will publish next week.”
The DPC’s deadline for making a final decision on this matter was the end of this week. The investigation leading started almost two years ago, and focused on two ways in which the company allegedly breached GDPR rules. The first was Instagram allowing young users, ages 13-17, to set up business accounts on the platform, which made those users’ contact information publicly available. (Users sometimes switch to business accounts because...