Meta Faces a $100,000 Daily Fine If It Doesn't Fix Privacy Issues In Norway

Norway's data protection regulator has accused Meta of violating user privacy by tracking their activities, threatening to fine the company $100,000 per day if it fails to take corrective action. "It is so clear that this is illegal that we need to intervene now and immediately," said Tobias Judin, head of Norway's privacy commission, Datatilsynet. Engadget reports: The move follows a European court ruling banning Meta from harvesting user data like location, behavior and more for advertising. Datatilsynet has referred its actions to Europe's Data Protection Board, which could widen the fine across Europe. The aim is to put "additional pressure" on Meta, Judin said. (Norway is a member of the European single market, but not technically an EU member.)

Meta told Reuters that it's reviewing Datatilsynet's decision and that the decision wouldn't immediately impact its services. "We continue to constructively engage with the Irish DPC, our lead regulator in the EU, regarding our compliance with its decision," a spokesperson said. "The debate around legal bases has been ongoing for some time and businesses continue to face a lack of regulatory certainty in this area."

Do you think

[rossdee]

$100,000 would make a difference to Zuck?

when it adds up to the cost of the local DC

[Joe_Dragon]

when it adds up to the cost of the local DC and then the cops show up to take the hardware to cover the fine.

Re:

[Wolfling1]

There is some precedent in the EU to fine companies a percentage of their annual turnover. If they started fining them 1% per day, now that would be something to behold.

Re:

[Luckyo]

This is 36,5 million a year net loss for a market where there are less than 5,5 million total potential customers (and that's counting everyone, including babies and people with so much dementia they cannot use a smart device).

So yes, this would likely make a difference. Would this be enough to make a separate class of customer on meta backend for Norwegians through? Probably no, but we'll see.

Re:

[arglebargle_xiv]

It's 3 million a month, just the cost of doing business in Norway.

Re:

[Luckyo]

100.000*365=36.500.000. It's a daily day, not every ten days.

Re:

[Luckyo]

Sorry, read it wrong. Mea culpa. You're mostly correct.

However again, it's against a backdrop of below 5,5 million total customers. Realistically, they probably have 2-3 million users total. So it's a probably 1-2 euros per customer per month. That's a hell of a pressure on profits from that market.

Meta's response

[marcle]

"This is just a slap on the wrist, doesn't bother us a bit, we'll keep doing the same thing, we make much more money tracking people than you can fine us."

Re:Meta's response

[AmiMoJo]

That's now how fines work here. This is just the starting point. If they ignore it, the fine can increase up to 4% of global revenue. Not profit, revenue. That would be around $4.5 billion.

Norway isn't the only country reaching this conclusion either. They are going to have to make changes in order to keep operating in Europe.

forget fines

[awwshit]

Cut them off completely. Stop their advertising dollars and you'll get compliance.

Re:

[HiThere]

No. Just double the fine every day they're not in compliance. After a month you'll own them.

Re:

[evanh]

Except, of course, like all expert crooks, they don't pay any fines.

Re:

[sg_oneill]

Cut them off completely. Stop their advertising dollars and you'll get compliance.

Start fineing the advertisers and you'll get their attention.

Meta Pixel tracks you even if you're not logged-in

[terrorubic]

“The Meta pixel [facebook.com] is a piece of code on your website that can help you better understand the effectiveness of your advertising and the actions that people take on your site, such as visiting a page or adding an item to their basket.”

“You'll also be able to see when customers took an action after seeing your ad on Facebook and Instagram, which can help you with retargeting. And when you use the Conversions API alongside the pixel, it creates a more reliable connection that helps the delivery system decrease your costs.”

Fuck Eu!

[Anonymouse Cowtard]

court ruling banning Meta from harvesting user data like location, behavior and more for advertising

So, essentially stopping them from their usual and normal business practices. Meta should counter with potential restraint of trade. Otherwise this would set a troubling precedent. Maybe Meta could threaten to block access to Norwegian news seeing how well that's worked in other jurisdictions.

Re:

[sd4f]

Just a note, Norway isn't in the EU!

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Norway is in the European Economic Area, or EEA. That means that they have to adopt most EU rules, in exchange for free trade and freedom of movement rights.

GDPR is one such rule, so this ruling, while not binding, is very significant as the reasoning behind it should be arguable in all GDPR countries.

Re:

[radja]

Thieves can't sue because their normal business practices are illegal.

Eh.

[Motleypuss]

Fine Zuck until he can't move. Fine him right in the torso region.

If I'm Meta "fine by us"

[schwit1]

Fixing the system in accordance with Norwegian law will probably mean more than $100k/day in reduced profits.

If Norway ups the ante, Meta should turn off all Norwegians access. Play hardball. See who blinks. It would be an interesting test case.

Norway at some point should make it a criminal case.

You can't ignore a legal enforcement

[Njovich]

So many people here seem to think they can just pay the fine and continue going on. That is not how that works, and companies in the past have found out. A fine is just a first measure to push a party into enforcement. After that it will go to court, and a judge isn't going to look favorable on a party like that. After the judge makes a ruling, ignoring it becomes contempt of court. If a company is really that stupid to ignore a court order, a court will rapidly escalate measures that can include prison terms, massive fines and making it impossible for companies to continue operating in the country.

To put that in perspective

[arQon]

it's $36M/yr, i.e. less than 0.1% of their revenue and probably less than 1% of their annual profit - IOW, not even worth the effort it would take to make bothering to comply with the law worth it. As usual.

Re:

[cyb97]

The challenge here is the legal standing for this is GDPR. If this sticks in Norway, it will stick through out the whole EU-area. Think Schrems, Austria is also just "one country with a small population"...

Pretty sure Schrems 1&2 ended up costing Facebook much more than 1% of annual profitâ¦