Meta was fined US$276 million for failing to protect Facebook users’ data🇧🇷 The process in which the company was condemned refers to the case of the leakage of personal data of 533 million users of the social networkrevealed in 2021. The case was tried in Ireland and was based on the general laws of the European Union (EU).
the leak was revealed last year and confirmed by Alon Gal, cybersecurity researcher. The database was probably accumulated through months of using a glitch in the “add friend” feature. In total, the Meta accumulates more than US$ 900 million in fines🇧🇷
According to the Data Protection Commission of Ireland (DPC, its acronym in English), the leak of Facebook users’ data violated the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), general EU law on data protection.
The leak contained personal information about Facebook users, such as phone number, location, birthday and the “classic” personal email. The data was accessed through a glitch in the “Add friend” feature” — just one of the main buttons on the social network.
In this year, the DPC imposed three fines on Meta🇧🇷 In September, the agency fined Meta US$402 million. The reason was the management of Instagram with data from teenagers. In March, in another data breach case, the fine was “only” $18.6 million. In September 2021, the WhatsApp received a $267 million fine for not correctly informing how it managed its users’ data.
In short: since last year, Meta accrued US$963.6 million in fines in Europe🇧🇷 And of course, everything will be paid in Euros — it’s a good thing that the EU currency is devaluing, isn’t it?
Brazilians were also victims of leaks
Last year, when the case came to light, the Technoblog found that 8,064,916 Brazilian profiles were included in the leak. All data from Brazilians included mobile number, Facebook ID, full name and gender. The following data only affected a portion of users:
- Current City;
- city of origin;
- relationship status;
- company where you work;
- email address;
- birth date;
- date the data was collected.
Leak data was collected between 2018 and 2019, the year Facebook fixed the security flaw. Even if the data reveal happened in 2021, that doesn’t mean that the ′′ old information ′′ is out of date. Many users keep their phone number for years, as well as emails — and for a cybercriminal, this is much more important than hometown or relationship status.
With information: The Verge and BleepingComputer
https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/2022/11/28/meta-e-processada-em-us-276-milhoes-por-vazamento-de-533-milhoes-de-contas/