Meta fined record €1.2 billion in EU over US data transfers

Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc. was hit by a record €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) European Union privacy fine and given a deadline to stop shipping users’ data to the US after regulators said it failed to protect personal information from the prying eyes of American security services.

The social network giant’s continued data transfers to the US didn’t address “the risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms” of people whose data was being transfered across the Atlantic, according to a decision by the Irish Data Protection Commission announced on Monday.

On top of the fine, which eclipses a €746 million EU privacy penalty previously doled out to Amazon.com Inc.