Letter to European Commission highlights new material about Meta’s internal data systems, and how Meta infringes the DMA & GDPR.

A letter sent by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) reveals a regime of data anarchy at Meta with data misuse so profound that it would be impossible for the tech giant to comply with new EU law.

The letter to European Commission Executive Vice President Vestager draws on thousands of pages of documents examined by the human rights organization from long-running litigation against Meta in Northern California.

The documents describe data anarchy within the company, where people responsible for data systems are unaware of how other people in the company use their system. In some cases, even the engineers using a system may not be able to understand what is happening because, according to a Meta engineer, ‘it is not possible for humans to understand’.

When ordered to produce information about what 149 different data systems within Meta do, and what parts of Meta’s business use them, the company was unable to respond. This was despite having conducted a year-long investigation of those systems.

Meta’s data free-for-all makes compliance with the new EU Digital Markets Act impossible for the tech giant. The DMA entered into force this month and prohibits Big Tech firms from automatically using data from one part of their business to prop up other parts.

The revelations from the Northern California litigation also show that Meta has infringed on the cardinal requirements of the GDPR for years. The Irish Data Protection Commission is Europe’s lead GDPR supervisory authority for Meta.

“These latest revelations show data anarchy inside Meta. It does not know where, how, or why data is used internally. Meta can not comply with the new EU Digital Markets Act and has failed to uphold its GDPR obligations for years. This is a data free-for-all”.

Dr. Johnny Ryan, Open Markets Institute Fellow and Senior Fellow of ICCL

ICCL’s letter also warns the Commission that it should be prepared to impose “structural remedies” under the Digital Markets Act. It may be necessary to break Meta up.

SOURCE: Open Markets Institute

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