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    Facebook owner hit with 251 million euros in fines for 2018 data breach

    By SHOOTNo Comments231 Views
    Attendees visit the Meta booth at the Game Developers Conference 2023 in San Francisco on March 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
    LONDON (AP) --

    European Union privacy watchdogs hit Facebook owner Meta with fines totaling 251 million euros on Monday after an investigation into a 2018 data breach on the social media platform that exposed millions of accounts.

    Ireland’s Data Protection Commission issued the penalties after wrapping up its inquiry into the breach, when hackers gained access to user accounts by exploiting bugs in the platform’s code that allowed them to steal digital keys, known as “access tokens.”

    Under the 27-nation EU’s strict privacy regime, the Irish watchdog is Meta’s lead privacy regulator because the company’s regional headquarters are based in Dublin.

    The watchdog issued reprimands and “administrative penalties” worth 251 million euros ($264 million) after it found multiple infringements of the rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation.

    The company said it would appeal the decision.

    “This decision relates to an incident from 2018. We took immediate action to fix the problem as soon as it was identified,” Meta said in a statement. The company said it “proactively informed people impacted” as well as the Irish watchdog.

    When it first disclosed the problem, Facebook said 50 million user accounts were affected. But the actual number was around 29 million, including 3 million in Europe, the Irish watchdog said Tuesday.

    The company has said that after discovering the bug, it alerted the FBI and regulators in the U.S. and Europe.

    The hack involved three distinct bugs in Facebook’s “View As” feature, which let people see how their profiles appear to others. The attackers used the vulnerability to steal access tokens from the accounts of people whose profiles came up in searches using the “View As” feature. The attack then moved from one user’s Facebook friend to another. Possession of those tokens would allow attackers to control those accounts.

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    Tags:Data Protection CommissionEuropean UnionFacebookMeta



    EU accuses TikTok of “addictive design” that harms children, seeks changes to protect users

    Friday, February 6, 2026
    The icon for the TikTok video sharing app is seen on a smartphone in Marple Township, Pa., Feb. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

    The European Union on Friday accused TikTok of breaching the bloc's digital rules with "addictive design" features that lead to compulsive use by children, in preliminary charges that strike at the heart of the popular video sharing app's operating model.

    EU regulators said their two-year investigation found that TikTok hasn't done enough to assess how features such as autoplay and infinite scroll could harm the physical and mental health of users, including minors and "vulnerable adults."

    The European Commission said it believes TikTok should change the "basic design" of its service. The commission is the EU's executive arm and enforcer of the 27-nation bloc's Digital Services Act, a sweeping rulebook that requires social media companies to clean up their platforms and protect users, under threat of hefty fines.

    TikTok denied the accusations.

    "The Commission's preliminary findings present a categorically false and entirely meritless depiction of our platform, and we will take whatever steps are necessary to challenge these findings through every means available to us," the company said in a statement.

    TikTok's features including infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications, and highly personalized recommender systems "lead to the compulsive use of the app, especially for our kids, and this poses major risks to their mental health and wellbeing," Commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said at a press briefing in Brussels.

    "The measures that TikTok has in place are simply not enough," he said.

    The company now has a chance to defend itself and reply to the commission's findings. Regnier said "if they don't do this properly," Brussels could issue a so-called non-compliance decision and possible fine worth up to 6% of... Read More

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