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Irish Regulator Fines Instagram Over Data

By  |  September 5, 2022

Ireland’s data privacy regulator has agreed to levy a record fine of 405 million euros ($402 million) against social network Instagram following an investigation into its handling of children’s data, a spokesman said.

“We adopted our final decision last Friday and it does contain a fine of 405 million euro,” said the spokesman for Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, which is the lead regulator of Instagram’s parent company Meta Platforms.

The penalty is the second-biggest issued under the European Union’s stringent privacy rules, after Luxembourg’s regulators fined Amazon 746 million euros last year. 

Instagram parent Meta, which also owns Facebook and can appeal the decision, didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

The Irish watchdog’s investigation centered on how Instagram exposed the personal details of users ages 13 to 17, including email addresses and phone numbers. The minimum age for Instagram users is 13.