Instagram Will Reportedly Have to Pay a Massive Fine for Mishandling Data of Teens

Instagram will allegedly have to pay out a large fine for breaching the privacy rules established by the European Union. According to the research conducted by the Ireland’s Data Protection Commission, the social media platform mishandles the private information provided on Instagram by teenagers.

The incident was discovered by the Data Protection Commission and had to do with the data of teenagers. Now, if Instagram won’t be able to appeal this fine in court, they will have to pay EUR 405 million to Irish authorities. A data specialist from the organization found out that Instagram showed the personal information of teens aged between 13 and 17 years. The information was revealed on their account when they switched to business ones in order to use additional features. Meta doesn’t agree that they have to pay this fine and the company plans to appeal.

The way Instagram views this situation is that they don’t need to pay the fine as it was based on the outdated settings that were changed more than a year ago.

It is obvious that the situation with the privacy of teenagers is taken seriously in the European Union, so it’s likely that Instagram will eventually have to pay this fine. In addition to this fine, there have also been people and organizations that criticized Instagram for their policies in relation to underage users. In response, Instagram started adding new confidentiality and privacy features that can be used by teenagers. It will be interesting to see how this situation evolves in the near future and whether Instagram will have to pay this massive fine to the organization.

What do you think about the privacy settings on Instagram? Are you satisfied with the features? Share your thoughts in the comments below!