Instagram fined by Ireland’s data privacy regulator over children's data

Instagram was slapped with a €405 million or $402 million fine over children's data privacy violations. The data privacy regulator in Ireland agreed to impose a record fine against the social media platform after an investigation revealed it mishandled children's data.

In response to the penalty, Reuters reported that Instagram, which is owned by Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly known as Facebook), is planning to appeal against the Irish regulator's decision. It was revealed that the investigation was first launched in 2020, and it was about how children with ages 13 to 17 were allowed to sign up for business accounts wherein their phone numbers and email addresses were publicly published.

The spokesperson of Meta Platform said that Instagram does not agree with how the officials in Ireland calculated the fine that should be imposed. The company is also carefully reviewing the decision for its appeal.

"We adopted our final decision last Friday, and it does contain a fine of €405 million," Ireland's DPC spokesperson said in a statement.

In any case, it was reported that the country's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) regulates Facebook, Google, Apple, and other major tech companies because of the location of their European HQ in Ireland. So far, the DPC has already launched dozens of investigations involving other Meta subsidiaries, including WhatsApp and Facebook.

"This inquiry focused on old settings that we updated over a year ago and we've since released many new features to help keep teens safe and their information private," a Meta official told BBC News with regards to the handing down of the fine to Instagram.

He added, "Anyone under 18 automatically has their account set to private when they join Instagram, so only people they know can see what they post, and adults cannot message teens who do not follow them.

Meanwhile, the complete details of Ireland's DPC's decision are not yet available but are expected to be published next week as per the officials. If the fine is upheld even after the appeal, it will be one of the highest on the record and will surpass WhatsApp's 225 million euros for its failure to comply with EU data regulations in 2018.