Meta responsible for a massive data leak as Irish regulator imposes fine

Irish regulator, the Data Protection Commission, has fined Meta $275 million dollars for breaching rules to protect user data.

An investigation found Meta’s Facebook was guilty of allowing sensitive user data to be accessed from the platform. After being downloaded it was later uploaded into an online hacker forum.

Users throughout 2018 and 2019 were most at risk of their private personal data being accessed and shared.

Meta admitted tools it had created to allow people to find their friends using their phone numbers was to blame. The function was removed from the platform soon after the breach was discovered in 2019.

Worldwide, the investigation also found that data was scraped from 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries. This included over 32 million records pieces of information form users in the U.S. and 11 million in the UK.

Even though the data is three or more years old, it may still be of use to cybercriminals keen to impersonate people to procure credit cards, mobile phones and make other online purchases.

This is yet another example of social media platforms being unable to adequately protect their users by devising and implementing preventative pre-emptive security measures.

While governments attempt to hold social media platforms like Meta accountable for the content they allow on their platforms and their lax data security measures, it remains to be seen whether the platforms will actually pay the fines being imposed. Moreover, will the fines result in any genuine change?