News > Facebook parent Meta faces USD 100 million fine over privacy breach

Facebook parent Meta faces USD 100 million fine over privacy breach

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the EU’s top privacy regulator, took this action after an investigation revealed that Meta had stored users' passwords in plaintext format without proper encryption. This means that anyone with access to the database could easily read those passwords, putting EU users at risk of unauthorised access. The fine comes after a five-year investigation triggered by Meta's admission of the issue in 2019.