Facebook's parent company Meta fined over 2,500 billion VND

The incident dates back to 2019 when Meta discovered that some user passwords were being stored in plain text without any encryption, in serious violation of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Specifically, these passwords belonged to hundreds of millions of users of Meta services such as Facebook and Instagram.

The DPC has been investigating since the incident was reported by Meta. The investigation concluded that Meta failed to implement adequate security measures to protect users' personal data, in breach of its obligations as a data controller under the GDPR.

This regulation requires companies to implement appropriate security measures and assess potential risks to minimize the risk of personal data being compromised.

Facebook's parent company Meta was fined more than VND2,500 billion for revealing user passwords.

Meta explained that it discovered the issue in 2019 and immediately took corrective action. Accordingly, a "small number" of Facebook user passwords were accidentally stored in readable form on the company's internal systems.

Meta said there was no evidence that these passwords had been accessed without authorization or misused. It also promptly reported the incident to regulators and cooperated with the DPC throughout the investigation.

Pedro Canahuati, Meta's vice president of engineering, security and privacy, said in a statement in March 2019 that the company had notified hundreds of millions of Facebook Lite users, tens of millions of other Facebook users, and tens of thousands of Instagram users about the issue.

An update in April 2019 also said that Meta had discovered additional unencrypted Instagram password records, affecting millions of users.

The $102 million fine is just one of a string of penalties Meta has faced in recent years from European regulators. In early 2023, Meta was fined $414 million for forcing users to opt into advertising programs based on personal data tracking, in violation of EU privacy laws.

The total fines Meta has received from European regulators to date is more than $1 billion, with privacy and personal information security violations accounting for the majority. This has not only caused financial damage to the group but also affected its reputation globally.

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/cong-ty-me-cua-facebook-meta-bi-phat-hon-2500-ty-dong-post314285.html