- The regulator, Datatilsynet, had said that the company would be fined if it did not address privacy breaches the regulator had identified.
- Facebook owner Meta Platforms will face daily fines of 1 million crowns ($98,500) starting from 14 August due to privacy breaches.
- “According to Meta, this will take several months, at the very earliest, for them to implement. And we don’t know what the consent mechanism will look like,” The regulator says.
- Recently A court in Australia has ruled that Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, must pay fines totaling 20 million Australian dollars ($13.5m) in a breach of privacy case.
Facebook owner Meta Platforms will face daily fines of 1 million crowns ($98,500) starting from 14 August due to privacy breaches, as disclosed by Norway’s data protection authority. This enforcement, which could potentially carry broader implications across Europe, follows a decision by the Norwegian regulator, Datatilsynet, on 17 July, warning of fines if privacy issues were not rectified.
Datatilsynet mandated that Meta is prohibited from collecting user data within Norway, including physical locations, for the purpose of targeted advertising known as behavioral advertising, a common practice among major tech companies.
The deadline for Meta Platforms to address these concerns was set for 4 August. Tobias Judin, who leads Datatilsynet’s international section, told the news agency that the 1 million crowns daily fine will be in effect until 3 November.
Meta last week said it intends to ask users in the European Union for their consent before allowing businesses to target advertising based on what they view on its services such as Facebook and Instagram.
Judin said that step was not enough. Meta had to stop the processing of personal data immediately, and until that consent mechanism was up and running. “According to Meta, this will take several months, at the very earliest, for them to implement. And we don’t know what the consent mechanism will look like,” Judin to the news agency.
“And in the meantime, peoples’ rights are being violated, every single day.”
Meta said the change was made to address regulatory requirements in the region and stems from an order in January by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, Meta’s lead EU regulator, to reassess the legal basis for how it targets ads.
Norway is not a member of the European Union but is part of the European single market.
Recently A court in Australia ruled that Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, must pay fines totaling 20 million Australian dollars ($13.5m). The fines were imposed because Meta collected user data through a smartphone application called Onavo without disclosing this action to its users.
The court also ordered Meta, along with its subsidiaries Facebook Israel and the now-defunct Onavo app, to pay 400,000 Australian dollars ($270,631) in legal costs to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which brought the civil lawsuit against Meta.
This legal issue is related to Meta’s handling of user information since the scandal involving data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 United States election. However, another civil court action against Meta by Australia’s Office of the Information Commissioner regarding its dealings with Cambridge Analytica in Australia is still ongoing.
(With inputs from agencies)
