Facebook and Instagram could go offline in Europe, Meta warns; understand
Social media parent is facing legal problems on the continent due to its data transfer system
Meta , the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp , said it may need to take some of its services offline in Europe due to changes in data storage policies following a court ruling.
The alert was made in a report sent to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), equivalent to the Brazilian CVM , on Thursday (3). In it, Meta argues that it is subject to evolving laws and regulations that determine whether, how and under what circumstances it can transfer, process or receive certain data “critical to our operations”.
In this process, the company worked with the so-called "privacy shield", which allowed sharing data from users in the European Union to the company's headquarters in the United States. In July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union invalidated this system.
Other Meta data transfer databases are also being investigated by regulatory and judicial agents. The company claims that in August 2020 it received a preliminary ruling from the Irish Data Protection Commission which concluded that one of these bases, the SCCs, was not in compliance with EU data protection regulation.
The commission even tentatively proposed that data transfers from the European Union to the United States be suspended. According to Meta, a final decision on the subject may be released in the first half of 2022.
“If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted and we cannot continue to use SCCs or rely on other alternative means of transferring data from Europe to the United States, we will likely not be able to offer many of our most important products and services. , including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe, which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.”
The data processing that takes place in the United States is used by the company to provide services and carry out so-called targeted advertising, one of the main sources of income for social networks such as Facebook .
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force in the European Union in 2018, and established more restrictive measures on the use of user and customer data by companies.
In the report, Meta also cites data protection laws in countries such as Brazil and the United Kingdom that are similar to the European one, as well as a measure approved by the state of California that will come into force in January 2023.
All of these measures, according to the company, could force it to incur “significant compliance costs and could potentially impose new restrictions and requirements on companies like ours, including in areas such as data blending in services, mergers, acquisitions and product design.” products".
“New legislation or regulatory decisions that restrict our ability to collect and use information about minors may also result in limitations on our advertising services or our ability to offer products and services to minors in certain jurisdictions,” it says.
In this scenario, Meta states that it expects to continue to be the target of “investigations, inquiries, data requests, requests for information, actions and audits by the government and regulators in the United States, Europe and around the world, particularly in the areas of privacy. , data protection, law enforcement, consumer protection, civil rights, content moderation and competition as we continue to grow and expand our operations.”
Facebook's parent company expects these actions to "interrupt or require us to change our business practices in a way that is materially adverse to our business, results in negative publicity and reputational damage, embezzles resources, time and attention for the management of our business, or subject us to other structural or behavioral problems that adversely affect our business”.
Meta says it is not “threatening” to leave Europe
In a note released this Tuesday (8), Meta stated that it does not want or is “threatening” to stop operating in Europe, but that, like “70 other European and North American companies, we are identifying risks for the business”. as a result of uncertainty around international data transfers”.
“This is not new. We have cited international data transfers in each of our earnings reports since at least Q2 2018, and we highlight the specific risk for our services in Europe and the need for a secure EU-US data transfer mechanism in our last four reports”, he says.
“International data transfers underpin the global economy and support many of the services that are critical to our daily lives. Companies in all industries need clear global rules to protect transatlantic data flows over the long term.”
According to the company, the scenario points to a conflict between the data laws of the United States and the European Union. “We want the fundamental rights of users in the European Union to be protected and we want the internet to continue to function as it should: frictionless, in compliance with applicable laws, but not confined to national borders,” the note reads.
SOURCE-https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/business/facebook-e-instagram-podem-sair-do-ar-na-europa-alerta-meta-entenda/
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