In first big test of new EU rules, FB faces Irish probe into data breach

Facebook Inc has become the first big test case for the European Union’s beefed up privacy rules as Ireland’s data watchdog opened a probe into a security breach announced last week that affected as many as 50 million accounts.

Ireland’s data protection authority on Wednesday said it has started investigating whether Facebook had “appropriate technical and organisational measures” in place to protect its users’ personal data. While not the first European probe into Facebook, it’s the first under the EU’s new data rules, which could lead to fines of as much as 4% of a company’s annual sales.

Facebook informed the Irish authority “that their internal investigation is continuing and that the company continues to take remedial actions to mitigate the potential risk to users”, the regulator said in a tweet, as it announced its probe. Facebook said in a statement that it’s in close contact with the regulator and “will continue to cooperate with their investigation.”

EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova, who pushed through EU’s new law called General Data Protection Regulation, welcomed the probe. The EU’s top privacy official, Andrea Jelinek, who chairs the group of privacy commissioners from across the bloc, said in a tweet on Thursday that “all board members stand ready to engage in mutual assistance if needed.”