It is no secret to anyone that Meta is one of the most controversial companies when it comes to the security of its users in basically any of its applications. Therefore, it is partly not surprising that he is now being fined $276 million , this time by the Irish Data Protection Commission.
The reason? The information leak that exposed names, phone numbers, locations and even dates of birth of more than 533 million users in April 2021 . This case has been under investigation since the news broke that year. The commission wanted to verify that Facebook had followed the guidelines of the GDPR and apparently this was not the case.
In April 2021, the information of just over 553 million Facebook users was published in a hacker forum . These data corresponded to users who were using the application in 2018 and 2019. At that time, there were vulnerabilities in Facebook’s security system. The same information had already been leaked in other circumstances in January 2021, news that was reported that same month.
It is not the first rodeo in Meta receiving fines for lack of security
Meta assures that its security has been fixed since 2019 , however, this did not free it from guilt, nor did it prevent successive leaks on sites where hackers could have the information served on a silver platter. The recent fine is the latest in a long list where millions and millions of euros must be paid by the company due to the same reason: negligence in protecting the data of its users.
This is the main reason why Facebook has had a very low rating in the Google Play Store. The little security that it offers to its own users is a stigma that has been dragging on since 2018 . Many still remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where the company had to pay a fine of 5 million euros due to all the problems it caused.
That single footprint, together with clumsy and unconscious handling of the data stored in its social networks, has caused Facebook to plummet and become one of the applications with the worst reputation today.
And you… Do you still use the application?
Source | The Verge
