Facebook Dating no longer arrives in Europe in time for Valentine's Day due to scrutiny by Irish regulator

In September 2019, Facebook announced that it would launch its European dating application in early 2020. The date of arrival on February 13 was already set, but an investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DCP) English) destroyed the company's plans.

Remember that Facebook's European headquarters are in Ireland, and the DCP is responsible for verifying that the company led by Mark Zuckerberg does, in fact, comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. According to a statement from the Irish regulatory authority, Facebook has not provided sufficient information about how the application collects and handles user data. The PDD advances that the social network only informed him of the launch of the application in Europe about 10 days before the established date.

Due to the lack of response to their requests for information, DPC decided to open an investigation to Facebook, sending several inspectors to search their offices in Dublin and collect documentation.

In response, a Facebook spokesman indicated in an international press release that the company's project meets GDPR standards. We have been working to ensure the security and privacy of users and we share our decision with DPC before moving forward with the launch in Europe. For now, the social network is not advancing with a new arrival date for Facebook Dating to the territory.

The news comes after the PDD opened two formal investigations, Google and Tinder. At issue is how they handle the private information of European users, with the regulator suspecting that they are violating the GDPR.

If Google, Tinder or Facebook are not complying with the GDPR, the Irish regulatory authority may impose large fines. Since the regulation was implemented in May 2018, until January 27 this year, 160,921 thousand personal data breaches have been identified, with total fines of around 114 million euros. Highlighted is the € 50 million fine imposed by CNIL, the French data protection authority, Google in 2019.