Ireland’s data protection watchdog fined Meta Platforms after the Facebook and Instagram owner stored passwords of some social media users on its internal systems without proper safeguards.

Ireland's Data Protection Commission on Friday fined Meta more than $100 million for privacy law violations related to failing to properly encrypt and store passwords of the tech giant's users.

In September 2022, the company received a €405 million penalty after regulators determined that Instagram had failed to protect children’s privacy adequately. A few months later, the DPC fined Meta another €265 million over weak security settings that allowed hackers to download a large quantity of user data.