Facebook fined €1.2bn for mishandling users' data

Facebook's owner, Meta, has been fined €1.2bn (£1bn) for mishandling people's information erstwhile transferring it betwixt Europe and the United States.

Issued by Ireland's Data Protection Commission, it is the largest good imposed nether the EU's General Data Protection Regulation privateness law.

GDPR rules necessitate companies to question people's consent earlier utilizing their idiosyncratic data.

Meta says it volition entreaty against the "unjustified and unnecessary" ruling.

At the crux of this determination is the usage of modular contractual clauses (SCCs) to determination EU information to the US.

These ineligible contracts, prepared by the European Commission, incorporate safeguards to guarantee idiosyncratic information continues to beryllium protected erstwhile transferred extracurricular Europe.

But determination are concerns these information flows inactive exposure Europeans to the US's weaker privateness laws - and US quality could entree the data.

Most ample companies person analyzable webs of information transfers - which tin see email addresses, telephone numbers and fiscal accusation -to overseas recipients, galore of which beryllium connected SCCs.

And Meta says their wide usage makes the good unfair.

Facebook president Nick Clegg said: "We are truthful disappointed to person been singled retired erstwhile utilizing the aforesaid ineligible mechanics arsenic thousands of different companies looking to supply services successful Europe.

"This determination is flawed, unjustified and sets a unsafe precedent for the countless different companies transferring information betwixt the EU and US."