Popular social media platform Instagram was fined for failing to protect children’s data. Instagram will have to pay $402 million as part of the record fine imposed by the Irish data regulator. The editor said a business account feature on Instagram exposed children’s data.
Instagram fined 402 million dollars for failing to protect children’s data
An Instagram investigation that has been going on since last year by the Irish Data Protection Commission has finally been completed. It was decided that the social media platform, which violated the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, could not protect children’s data.
According to the investigation in Ireland, contact data of children aged 13-17 who converted their profile to business account is emerging. This data includes the users’ phone number, e-mail and address. However, the General Data Protection Regulation obliges users under the age of 18 to keep their information confidential.
Speaking to Reuters, a spokesperson for Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said, “We adopted our official decision last Friday and it includes a 405 million euro fine for Instagram.”
Instagram, on the other hand, denied the claim that this gap was closed about a year ago and that the information of users between the ages of 13-17 was revealed. He also stated that they have taken additional security measures to keep the information of young people confidential.
These features include automatic locking of a child’s account who creates an Instagram account. Saying that they are reviewing the new decision, the Instagram spokesperson stated that they can appeal the fine.
While this fine is quite large, it does not represent a first for Meta. Previously, WhatsApp was fined 225 million euros and Facebook 17 million euros.
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