The EU has fined itself for breaching its own Data Privacy Act

The European Union has investigated itself and found out… a factual error! For the first time in EU history, it has been found to have breached personal privacy rules set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and will have to pay a fine. the decision was made by the General Court of the EU.

The victim of the EU’s brazen disregard for the law was a German citizen who used the “Log in with Facebook” option when registering for the conference through the European Commission’s website. When a user clicked on that button, information about their device, browser and IP address was transmitted through a content delivery network operated by Amazon Web Services and eventually found its way to servers in the US operated by Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company. The court found that the transfer of data took place without proper safeguards, a violation of GDPR regulations, and ordered the EU to pay a fine of 400 euros (about $412) directly to the person bringing the case.

GDPR, the reason for every website asks if you want to accept cookiesIt has been a thorn in the side of tech companies since it first took effect in 2018. A strict set of data privacy rules designed to regulate the amount of personal data companies can collect from users and give individuals more control over how their data is being obtained and used has prompted a series of major fines paid by Big Tech firms, notably Meta.

Bought a Meta last year He faced a fine of 1.3 billion dollars for failing to adequately protect European users’ data from American intelligence agencies when data was transferred to US servers. Previously, Meta was hit with a year $417 million in fines Under GDPR regulations to violate the privacy of minor users on Instagram and 232 million dollars For not transparently disclosing how WhatsApp processes data. While Meta isn’t alone in getting these rather expensive wrist slaps (Amazon itself is one $887 million in fines e.g. in 2021), it was a Facebook login option that got the EU into hot water with it.

GDPR has been a bit of a mixed bag since its introduction. It certainly grabbed some headlines with huge fines aimed at Silicon Valley giants. But enforcement can take forever – even the EU’s first fine for breaching an individual’s privacy took more than two years to process. The data protection authority has more than three quarters he complained There is ample evidence that there is a lack of budget and staff to monitor violations and a byzantine list of laws. he didn’t really do much curbing the invasive practices of surveillance capitalism. The EU has some work to do. Maybe it can start by following their own rules.