It has finally happened: Meta has less than five months to stop sending Europeans’ personal data to the U.S., under a decision by the Irish privacy watchdog that also imposed a record $1.3 billion fine on the company for its past illegal data transfers. That means Facebook and Instagram may soon no longer be available in Europe.
You can read all about the bombshell decision and the history behind it here—and I recommend doing so but, the tl;dr is that, since Meta is not able to prevent American intelligence agencies from collecting and accessing European users’ personal data in the U.S., the company illegally fails to guarantee Europeans’ privacy rights when it transfers data to the U.S.
