EU Regulator’s First Investigation Into Facebook May End This Summer

On the last day of February, the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) from Ireland said that the European Union’s lead regulator plans to put an end on the first investigation on Facebook’s personal data use by summer. The remaining six investigations will take place before the year 2019 goes by.

In 2018, the office of the DPC conducted three investigations concerning the cyber attack on the social media platform. In the case, hackers managed to steal login codes, and therefore, they could access approximately five crores accounts. Among those stolen accounts, about ten lakhs came from Europe.

In addition, a probe has been launched to investigate “a large number of other breaches” Facebook has faced in recent times. One of those breaches happened in December 2018 when the company was revealed to have a bug exposing private photos of 68 lakhs Facebook users.

How the company collects and leverages personal data is a major issue that has gained much attention from its users. That’s why the DPC is conducting many probes based on users’ complaints.

In addition to Facebook, its subsidiaries including Instagram and WhatsApp are objects in the commissioner’s probes. Apple, LinkedIn and Twitter are not exceptions. All of these companies have had some issues relating to how they use users’ personal data and how transparent processing their data is.

In the annual report to the office, Dixon claimed that these investigations would approach the “decision adjudications stage later this year.” The report came to the public on February 28.

A lot of US tech companies have set up their European headquarters in Ireland. According to “One Stop Shop” mechanism given by the General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR for short) of the European Union, the commissioner now serves as the lead regulator who is responsible for keep track of Airbnb, Dropbox, Yelp, and Microsoft.

To handle the massive workload, the office plans to hire 50 employees this year; and as such, the number of its staff will increase to about 165. The data derived from Dixon’s annual report.