Social media giant Facebook ordered to shell out R$ 40 million to users due to two data breaches in 2018.
Title: Facebook Brazil Ordered to Fork Over $40 Million for 2018 Data Breaches
In a scathing verdict, the Minas Gerais Court of Justice (TJMG) has slammed Facebook Brazil with a whopping $40 million penalty for two data breaches reported in 2018. The Brazilian subsidiary of Meta must hand over the hefty sum to the State Fund for Consumer Protection and Defense, should the ruling stand.
Breaking it down, the decision grants each user who had an account on Facebook during the October and December 2018 data leaks an individual compensation of $10,000. Given that 29 million and 6.8 million users were respectively affected by these breaches, the total number of users entitled to compensation is significant.
Facebook Brazil has the right to appeal the judgment, and collection of the fine can occur only after all appeal avenues have been exhausted. In a statement, Meta admitted its disagreement with the decision and said it is evaluating its legal options.
The court ruling refers to two security lapses. In the first, 29 million users had their sensitive data—including phone number, email, gender, language, religion, and the last ten locations they were tagged—exposed in October 2018. By December of the same year, photos and stories from 6.8 million users went public.
According to records, Facebook Brazil reported these incidents as soon as it became aware of them and took measures to limit damages related to the data leaks. The initial lawsuit, filed by the Institute for Collective Defense in 2019, also encompassed a third data breach on WhatsApp.
In an attempt to dispute the lawsuit's WhatsApp section, Facebook Brazil's defense disavowed the claim that "the tool is operated by another US-based company, WhatsApp LLC." The defense argued that the incident affected only one Brazilian user. However, the TJMG has decided that compensation will be paid directly to users via their registered credit cards or bank accounts on the platform.
Lillian Salgado, the director of the technical committee of the Institute for Collective Defense, remarked that tech giants often try to evade their responsibility. She explained that the TJMG decision was based on Brazilian consumer protection laws and general data protection legislation to keep the corporation accountable.
"The platform was condemned to compensate not only for collective moral damages but also to each consumer user who used the platform at the time of the harmful event," Salgado added.
- Facebook Brazil
- Data Breach Fine
- R$40 Million
- TJMG
- 2018
- Privacy Violation
- User Compensation
- Collective Moral Damages
According to Judge Newton Teixeira Carvalho, the reduction proposed by the court's rapporteur on the value of compensation was not reasonable or proportionate. The judge opted to triple the initial valuation, considering the enormous market value of Meta, currently estimated at $1.77 trillion.
- Market Capitalization
- Meta
- Justice Ruling
- Data Privacy Violations
The $40 million fine imposed by the Minas Gerais Court of Justice (TJMG) on Facebook Brazil is a significant financial penalty due to two data breaches that occurred in 2018. In this ruling, the court emphasized the importance of user compensation for privacy violations, setting an individual compensation of $10,000 for each affected user.
