It is common for large technology companies to hold themselves accountable to the states for their many breaches against the privacy of users, who, often due to ignorance or simple negligence, do not care much to know to what extent our data is protected . But this fine is now imposed by the European Union meta It is the largest we have ever seen, amounting to more than one billion euros so far. And all this because of violating the privacy of European users.
This is undoubtedly a historic fine for its amount, and shows that the treatment of citizens’ data is taken very seriously in Europe. In fact, we have seen how Google has launched its new AI Bard in 180 countries, but none of them European, of course to avoid any problems with data processing that could lead to a ban in the long run. can be the reason. Nothing has been less than the sanctioned amount on this occasion €1.2 billion A staggering figure, even for a business of Meta’s size.
This fine is the heaviest ever imposed by Europe, as it is practically doubles the amount of what was by far the most important on Amazon In 2021. The purpose of the ban has been clear, the repeated sending of user data from the EU to servers in the United States when current law explicitly prohibited the practice, and thanks to patches and some cracks in the meta system continued to do so, somehow considering himself innocent in this regard.
But this fine has not only hurt Meta financially, but has forced Delete data collected from EU citizens within six months from its servers in the United States, And it is that it has been the main point of friction with the technical people of data processing in recent years. The problem is that data of European citizens hosted on US servers may be accessible to US security agencies, thereby violating the privacy of citizens of the European continent. This failure, although it is Meta’s responsibility, falls exclusively on the activities of Facebook, and not Instagram or WhatsApp, the other two large platforms that are owned by them.
The Facebook environment has always demanded that legislation be passed so that the transfer of data from European to US servers is carried out in the most secure way and supports the privacy of users. but for now not settled, And it seems that the situation is still not close. And as we know, data is the new gold of the 21st century, and Facebook is undoubtedly one of the biggest data collectors on the planet, with billions of users worldwide. The options to avoid these situations are clear: legislate to legalize this practice in a secure way, or open data centers on European soil where they are processed by META on European soil.
