Regulators on Monday found the tech giant unlawfully sent the personal data of European users to the United States. The fine comes after a decade-long battle by privacy activists that started when US intelligence whistle-blower Edward Snowden revealed tech giants knowingly handed data over to surveillance agencies.
In earlier rulings, EU courts found the privacy of European citizens was not adequately protected under US law. EU and US leaders are working on a new agreement on data flow that they say will allow essential data transfers while safeguarding civil liberties.
But the European Parliament and regulators have expressed concerns. Campaigners fear US law enforcement authorities may still be able to access the data of EU citizens and say that people in the bloc should be given the same legal protections from surveillance as US citizens. Al Jazeera spoke to Estelle Masse, senior policy analyst at Access Now, a global digital rights group, about the fine imposed on Meta. A lightly edited version of the interview follows. Al Jazeera: This is a massive fine, even for one of the largest companies in the world.
Is it justified? Estelle Masse : It is a record fine under the EU privacy laws, so in that sense the number may seem like good news from a privacy perspective.
But we are still disappointed with the decision at the core of it. The core of the issue is whether or not Meta and Facebook can hold our information and move it to the United States. So we are grateful to see finally this fine coming after 10 years of legal battles. But we would have expected the decision to order Meta to immediate deletion [of data by] Meta and not to give it a deadline of six months.
