San Marino beats Facebook: Zuckerberg has to pay 4 million euros

On the one hand, the Republic of San Marino, and on the other, such a giant as Facebook. A decidedly unequal battle, on paper. However, David beat Goliath: In the last few hours, it was fine 4 million euros Previously imposed, to rule can make jurisprudence. Titan’s Personal Data Protection Authority lifted the fine a few years ago, and Mark Zuckerberg’s company has appealed against it. According to what was reported by the newspaper The rest of the pug, sparked controversy due to the publication of the personal data of more than 13,000 citizens of San Marino, on the popular social network, which is illegal. Name, surname, home address, phone number and e-mail.

Data leaked, offered for sale on the web and uploaded to online forums available to anyone. It’s basically the long wave of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, after which the company was also fined by the Federal Trade Commission about $5 billion. Among the millions of users from around the world who suddenly see their data visible on Facebook, there was also one in three San Marino citizens: given that San Marino currently has just over 30 thousand inhabitants, well a third of the population At that time, he turned to the data privacy guarantor. Zuckerberg first appealed to the court and then filed an appeal. But even in the latter case, the appeal was ruled inadmissible, just a few days ago. “Facebook should have taken appropriate security measures to prevent the collection of personal data of users and the large amount of data obtained from third parties. – reads the judgment of the San Marino Court of Appeal – The volume of traffic generated should have been immediately recognized as a serious anomaly, and should have triggered prevention and defense mechanisms aimed at avoiding the commission of any action potentially detrimental to the confidentiality of the data of persons joining the virtual partnership.”

Why is this a “historic” ruling? Because on these grounds, if all states sued Zuckerberg’s social network, the total damage to Meta could exceed 100 billion. And there are already those who have emulated San Marino: the Irish Privacy Authority, which, after opening the investigation also in San Marino using contacts established with colleagues from the Republic of Titan, moved recently to fine Facebook €265m. And in the aftermath of the ruling, other national realities are likely to come into play.