The EU is investigating Facebook’s Instagram for allegedly exposing the contact data of up to 5 million underage users
The EU is investigating whether Instagram broke data-privacy laws after it allegedly exposed the personal data of millions of children, the Telegraph reports. It follows a complaint from a US data scientist, who last year said that Instagram allowed underage users to publicly display their phone numbers and email addresses by switching to "business" accounts. The Telegraph reports that under EU data protection regulations, each investigation could result in a maximum fine of 4% of Facebook's annual revenue. Facebook's annual turnover for 2019 was $70.7 billion, meaning a maximum 4% fine would equal $2.8 billion. The loophole is linked to how Instagram allows users to switch between a regular account and a "business" account. To change over to having a business account, Instagram users must add either a phone number or an email address, which was then publicly accessible. "Because there are seemingly no restrictions on who can change their personal profile to a business account, many kids have figured out that they can 'claim' to have a business so that they can add the contact buttons onto their own profile page," Stier wrote in 2019. Instagram has since changed this process so business account holders have to opt-in to having their contact details publicly displayed. "We've always been clear that when people choose to set up a business account on Instagram, the contact information they shared would be publicly displayed. That's very different to exposing people's information," an Instagram spokesperson told Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-instagram-eu-investigation-allegedly-exposed-data-underage-users-2020-10
