Ireland’s Data Protection Commission this week launched an investigation into the Facebook data breach, which surfaced earlier this month. The regulator is investigating, among other things, whether the tech giant has violated European privacy law.
DPC announced search Wednesday. The regulator is launching the investigation after reports about a leaked data set from 2019, which contains data from about 533 million Facebook users. The dataset is provided for free on hacker forums. The data includes, for example, phone numbers, birthdays, email addresses or location information, depending on the account. Ireland’s Privacy Watch wrote that the investigation was initiated under Section 110 of the Data Protection Act 2018.
“The DPC believes, after reviewing the information Facebook has provided on this matter so far, that one or more provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation and / or the Data Protection Act 2018 may have been violated and / or violated with respect to the personal data of Facebook users.” DPC therefore considers it appropriate to determine whether Facebook has fulfilled its obligations as the controller of the personal data of its users.
Didier Reynders, Belgium’s European Commissioner for Justice, announced earlier this week that he was talking about a Facebook data breach with DPC’s Helen Dickson. In doing so, Facebook invited to actively collaborate to clarify the issues. Facebook leaves in a statement TechCrunch You know the company is “fully cooperating” with DPC and Investigation, which is “about Facebook features that make it easy for people to find and communicate with friends”. “We look forward to explaining these features and protections we have included,” the company said.
The data breach surfaced earlier this month. The dataset contains data from people from 106 different countries, including 5.3 million Dutch Facebook users. The platform said it is data from 2019. The data could have been looted due to a security vulnerability that could have been resolved in August 2019. Facebook users could pass HaveIBeenPwned Check if their email addresses or phone numbers have been leaked.
