Norway imposes $100k daily fines on Meta over data harvesting

Meta faces mounting fines in Europe in 2023 over privacy concerns, with the latest being a penalty from Norwegian regulators.

Meta's Previous Penalties in 2023:

Meta faced a €390mn fine for illegal personalized ads.

WhatsApp, owned by Meta, incurred a €5.5mn fine for related violations.

A GDPR record penalty of €1.2bn was levied against Meta for unsafe data transfers.

Latest Fine by Norwegian Regulators:

Norwegian authorities have imposed a fine of 1 MILLION crowns (€89,000) per day.

This penalty is scheduled to begin on August 14.

Meta is seeking a temporary injunction against this order.

Norway's Actions on Behavioral Ads:

Last month, Norway decided to temporarily ban behavioral ads on Facebook and Instagram due to privacy breaches.

The country's data protection agency, Datatilsynet, had warned Meta of potential fines if the violations weren't addressed.

Concerns About Online Ad Behavior:

Using online behavior for ad targeting poses risks, such as promoting discrimination and endangering democracy.

Tobias Judin of Datatilsynet emphasized the dangers of commercial surveillance for marketing and the importance of user data control.

Meta's Response:

Meta recently promised to obtain consent from EU users before displaying personalized ads.

Datatilsynet remains unimpressed, citing concerns over the time it would take for Meta to implement this and uncertainty about the consent mechanism.

Duration and Possible Permanence of Fines:

The daily fines from Datatilsynet are set to last until at least November 3.

There's also a possibility that these penalties could become permanent.

Meta's Familiarity with GDPR Penalties:

Sanctions of this nature are not new to Meta.

In May, it was revealed that the company was responsible for over half of the €4bn total in GDPR fines.