Instagram has been fined €405m ($403.2m) by Irish regulator the Data Protection Commission (DPC) following an investigation into how the Meta-owned app handled children’s data.
Specifically, the app was accused of allowing 13-17 year-olds to run business accounts (which made their phone numbers and email addresses public) as well as setting personal accounts to public by default, including for this age group.
It’s the third time the DPC has fined one of Meta’s subsidiaries, following a previous €225m fine for WhatsApp and €17m for Facebook. The DPC hasn’t yet published full details of the latest fine – that will come next week according to the Guardian – but it has confirmed the amount.
Meta has also responded publicly in a statement to Politico. “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,” said its spokesperson.
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