Turkey fines Facebook over data breach

Turkish authorities have fined Facebook $282,000 for violation of data protection laws which affected nearly 300,000 people, the Personal Data Protection Board (KVKK) said on Thursday.

Yesterday the KVKK said it had ruled to fine Facebook after 280,959 Turkish users had their personal information, including names, dates of birth, location, search history and more, impacted by the privacy breach. It did not specify what had happened to their personal details.

It said the board had launched an examination into the data breach after Facebook failed to inform the board about errors in some of its applications.

“The board has found that the necessary administrative and technical measures set out by law to prevent this data breach were not taken and has fined Facebook 1.15 million lira for not realizing its responsibilities regarding data protection,” the KVKK said.

Earlier this year, the Turkish authority had fined Facebook $289,000 over a separate data law breach relating to a software bug.