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Meta fined €251 million over 2018 Facebook security breach

Meta fined €251 million over 2018 Facebook security breach (Image Source: Timothy Hales Bennett on Unsplash)
Meta fined €251 million over 2018 Facebook security breach (Image Source: Timothy Hales Bennett on Unsplash)
Ireland's Data Protection Commission has fined Meta €251 million for a 2018 Facebook security breach affecting 29 million users. Hackers exploited Facebook's View As feature, which lets users see a public view of their profiles.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), the EU's data privacy regulator, has fined Facebook parent Meta €251 million because of a 2018 security breach that impacted 29 million users. 

The breach happened due to a flaw in Facebook's View As feature, which lets users see a public view of their profiles. The hackers stole Full names, contact details, locations, places of work, birthdates, religion, gender, and more, including personal data for minor profiles.  

The DPC said Meta fixed the flaw after discovering it, and about 3 million impacted users were from the EU. The DPC fined Meta €1.2 billion in 2023 over Facebook breaching GDPR directives on transferring user data from EU to US servers. 

"Facebook profiles can, and often do, contain information about matters such as religious or political beliefs, sexual life or orientation, and similar matters that a user may wish to disclose only in particular circumstances," said DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle in a press statement. 

"By allowing unauthorised exposure of profile information, the vulnerabilities behind this breach caused a grave risk of misuse of these types of data," Doyle added.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2024 12 > Meta fined €251 million over 2018 Facebook security breach
Rohith Bhaskar, 2024-12-18 (Update: 2024-12-18)