Meta Fined $277 Million for Leak of Half a Billion Users (1)

Meta Platforms Inc. was slapped with a €265 million ($277 million) fine for failing to prevent the leak of the personal data of more than half a billion users of its Facebook service.

The Irish Data Protection Commission, the main privacy watchdog for Meta in the European Union, levied the fine following a probe that found the social-media company had failed to apply strict safeguards required under the bloc’s sweeping General Data Protection Regulation.

On top of the fine -- the third-biggest under GDPR -- the watchdog ordered Meta’s Irish unit to make sure its processing complies with the ...