Technology News: The Meta-owned sharing platform Instagram has been fined over 405 million euros or $402 million for violations of the General Data Protection Regulation by the Irish Data Protection Commission. This is the second highest fine after the 746 million euros penalty against Amazon, under the GDPR.
A Meta spokesperson said this inquiry focused on old settings that Instagram updates a year back. And since then, Instagram has released many features to help teens and keeps them safe.
Additionally, Kids under 18, have their accounts automatically set to private when they join Instagram. With this feature, only people they know and follow can able to see their posts and adults cannot message teens who do not follow them. Instagram is fully engaged with the DPC in the entire inquiry and they are carefully reviewing their final decision.
The regulatory authority issued this fine, the following being required to trigger a dispute resolution mechanism to resolve the other European authorities for data protection’s opinions regarding the fine or input the penalty.
In a statement in the email, the Irish DPC confirmed the penalty or sanction but on the other hand declined in further comments meanwhile they have declined to provide further details on this. The penalty is the highest for the Meta-owned company after a 225 million euros fine for WhatsApp and a 17 million euros fine for Facebook and it is aimed at Instagram’s violation of children’s privacy including the publicly displayed of their phone numbers and email address.
