The European Union's privacy regulator fined Meta, parent company of Facebook, 91 million euros for storing users' passwords in plaintext

DUBLIN :The lead European Union privacy regulator fined social media giant Meta 91 million euros ($101.5 million) on Friday for inadvertently storing some users' passwords without protection or encryption. The inquiry was opened five years ago after Meta notified Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) tha

Meta was fined €91M for storing passwords unencrypted. Learn how this oversight led to a massive penalty. The new Meta fine is not the first

It follows an investigation into Meta inadvertently storing certain user passwords in plaintext on its internal systems, meaning they were not protected by encryption. The issue applied to millions of Facebook and Instagram users

An Irish regulator helping to police European Union data privacy said Friday it had fined Facebook-owner Meta 91 million euros ($102 million) for password-security breaches. The Data Protection Commission criticised Meta for failing to put in place appropriate security measures to protect users' password data and for taking too long to alert the regulator over the issue.

Company failed to follow one of the most sacrosanct rules for password storage.