European Union fines itself for breaking their own privacy laws

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'Trust no one, not even yourself' is the theme of the latest ruling from the European General Court. In an inspiring display of personal accountability, the EU General Court determined on Wednesday that the European Commission is to pay damages to an EU citizen for failing to comply with EU data protection regulations. Yes, you read that correctly.

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The citizen in question used the 'Sign in with Facebook' login option on the EU's webpage to register for a conference. The courts determined that this transfer of user information to Meta Platforms in the US was a violation of their own data-protection laws, and promptly ordered that the citizen be paid 400 Euros in damages.

While the equivalent $412 USD might not seem like much (from a legal perspective): in a market comprised of regular data breaches and questionable handling of user data - it is promising to see even the smallest of violations being enforced on a judicial level. Particularly when it involves the government fining themselves.

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The EU has some of the most stringent data protection laws in the world, which include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These regulations have been responsible for a multitude of high-profile court rulings, including a €1.2 billion (USD $1,246,458,000) fine imposed on Meta in 2023 and a €746 million (USD $774,859,644) fine against Amazon in 2021. While the €400 (USD $415) fine to the EU is not much: the example they've set is a promising showing of ethical responsibility in tech.

This fine comes before the European Commission put X in its sights by requesting the Elon Musk-owned social media platform hand over documents regarding its content recommendation alogirthm as part of its investigation into whether X has violated any of the Commissions data protection laws. More on that story below.

• Read more: European regulators put X in its sights with demands to turn over its algorithm