Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has announced a €91 million fine against Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (MPIL) following an inquiry into the company’s handling of user passwords.

This decision marks a significant development in the enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), highlighting the importance of secure data handling practices by major tech companies.

The inquiry, which began in April 2019, was initiated after MPIL reported that it had inadvertently stored certain users’ social media passwords in plaintext on its internal systems.

Plaintext storage means the passwords were not encrypted or protected using cryptographic measures, leaving them vulnerable to unauthorized access.

Although the incident was contained within Meta’s internal systems and no external parties gained access to the passwords, the company’s failure to ensure proper security led to a series of GDPR violations.

Findings and Violations

The DPC’s investigation concluded that MPIL had breached several key provisions of the GDPR:

Failure to Notify the DPC of the Breach: MPIL violated Article 33(1) of the GDPR by failing to promptly inform the DPC of the personal data breach concerning the storage of user passwords in plaintext.

Failure to Document the Breach: According to Article 33(5) GDPR, MPIL failed to properly document the breach, which is required to ensure transparency and accountability in data handling.

Inadequate Security Measures: MPIL violated Article 5(1)(f) and Article 32(1) of the GDPR by not implementing appropriate technical and organizational measures to secure user passwords, leaving them susceptible to unauthorized processing.

These violations underscore the company’s inadequate response to the risks posed by insecure password storage and its failure to meet the regulatory standards set by GDPR.

Decision and Penalties

On September 26, 2024, the DPC issued its final decision, which included both a reprimand and a €91 million fine.

The decision was reached after the draft was reviewed by Concerned Supervisory Authorities across the EU/EEA, as required under GDPR’s Article 60. No objections were raised, confirming the widespread support for the ruling.

Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle emphasized the severity of the incident, noting that “user passwords should not be stored in plaintext, given the risk of abuse.”

He stressed that the sensitivity of these passwords, which allow access to personal social media accounts, made it crucial for companies to implement robust security measures.

Series of Fines

This is not the first time Meta is facing fines under GDPR. In 2023, the company was hit with a massive $1.3 billion penalty for breaching EU data privacy regulations.

Additionally, in 2022, Meta was fined $276 million following a 2021 data breach that compromised the personal information of over 533 million users.

What’s a surefire way of frustrating your customers, hindering business efficiency and losing massive revenue?

Delayed payment notifications.

With technological advancement, customers expect real-time payment processing. However, delays in payment notifications can significantly damage the customer experience and further strain your business’s operational efficiency.

The importance of efficient payment processing has further increased with the rise of digital payments, making it critical for businesses to prioritise real-time payment updates.  Payment solutions like SeerBit’s Virtual Accounts offer a way for businesses to overcome these challenges, ensuring smooth, prompt transactions.

In this blog post, we discuss the various ways in which our virtual accounts solution can help your business deal with delayed payment notifications once and for all.

Why Delayed Payment Notifications Frustrate Your Customers?

Delayed payment notifications are more than just technical issues; they cause significant frustration for customers. When customers make a payment, they expect confirmation almost immediately. Any delay can lead to confusion. Was this a successful transaction or was there an unfortunate glitch? What are the consequences for your business?

• Customer dissatisfaction: Studies show that 41% of customers abandon a business after a poor payment experience, with delayed notifications often a key contributor to this frustration.
• Reduced customer loyalty: Customers may seek alternatives if they consistently encounter delayed notifications, as they prefer businesses that offer seamless and transparent transactions.

The ripple effect of the uncertainty due to delayed payment notification is that frustrated customers may never return to your business. Nearly 70% of consumers report that real-time transaction updates significantly influence their decision to remain loyal to a business.

Delayed Payment Notifications and Their Impact on Business Efficiency

Beyond the immediate customer frustration, delayed payment notifications can have a ripple effect on overall business efficiency. These delays can disrupt internal operations in several ways:

1. Cash flow management disruption: Businesses rely on accurate and timely payment data for cash flow management. Delays in notifications can complicate the ability to track revenue in real-time, making financial planning challenging.
2. Increased operational burden: Delayed notifications force businesses to allocate more resources to manual reconciliation, leading to increased labour costs. A recent report highlights that businesses spend up to 40% more time managing payment discrepancies when notifications are delayed.
3. Delayed fulfilment and customer service: Without immediate confirmation, businesses may delay product or service fulfilment, causing further frustration. The resulting slowdown in operations can severely impact customer retention and brand reputation.

For businesses that rely on seamless operations, delayed payment notifications also hurt operational efficiency. Any lag in financial data can result in missed opportunities, delayed orders, or failure to meet service level agreements (SLAs). When these inefficiencies become habitual, businesses risk damaging their reputation and ultimately losing customers to competitors who offer smoother, faster payment experiences.

So How Can Businesses Stop Losing Customers & Revenue to Delayed Payment Notifications?

Businesses must implement payment systems that guarantee real-time notifications. With SeerBit Virtual Accounts, businesses can leverage this solution to track transactions with real-time insights, thereby eliminating issues caused by delayed payment notifications.  This ensures that you have:

• Instant Reconciliation: Virtual Accounts offer automated real-time reconciliation, which reduces the need for manual intervention and prevents delays in verifying transactions.
• Enhanced Transparency and Control: With prompt notifications, businesses can keep track of their incoming payments more efficiently, allowing them to make quicker financial decisions and avoid operational bottlenecks.
• Seamless Integration: SeerBit’s Virtual Accounts integrate smoothly into existing financial systems, minimising the technical hurdles businesses face when upgrading their payment infrastructure.

Benefits of Prompt Payment Notifications

SeerBit’s Virtual Accounts provide businesses with a solution designed to streamline payment processes and enhance overall operational efficiency. Key benefits include:

• Improved customer satisfaction: With real-time payment notifications, businesses can ensure that customers receive immediate confirmations, improving their experience and loyalty.
• Optimised business operations: Eliminating delays in payment processing, businesses can improve cash flow management, reduce reconciliation times, and streamline order fulfillment processes.
• Cost efficiency: A SeerBit Virtual Account reduces the need for manual reconciliation and prevents revenue loss due to customer churn, ultimately saving businesses time and money.

In an era where real-time efficiency defines competitive advantage, SeerBit’s Virtual Accounts help businesses stay ahead by delivering the timely payment notifications that both customers and businesses need.

Conclusion

Delayed payment notifications pose a serious threat to business efficiency and customer satisfaction. With the risk of lost revenue, disrupted operations, and frustrated customers, businesses cannot afford to overlook the importance of real-time payment solutions. SeerBit’s Virtual Accounts provide a seamless solution, empowering businesses with instant payment updates, improving financial transparency and enhancing operational efficiency.
By adopting Virtual Accounts, businesses can ensure they remain efficient, competitive and trusted by their customers.

In its continuous drive to help businesses in West Africa move away from the usually slow, labour-intensive and erroneous traditional network service provision, replacing it with an optimized network infrastructure, TD Africa has launched its Managed Service Providers (MSP) service.

The service provision authorisation which provides a more efficient, scalable and secure approach for network optimization, was granted by Huawei at the recent Huawei Connect 2024 event in South Africa.

With Zero-Touch Provisioning (ZTP) technology, network deployment is now a matter of minutes rather than days. This technology not only accelerates time-to-market, but also reduces operational costs by up to 40 percent.

By virtue of these intelligent monitoring and analytics capabilities, TD Africa is able to provide a proactive fault identification and management solution, ensuring that network issues are resolved before they impact business operations.

The MSP uses Huawei iMaster-NCE technology which rides on a one-stop single-pane management solution for both traditional campus networks and SD-WAN.

While the MSP also offers enhanced security measures to safeguard data and infrastructure from cyber threats, the platform’s scalability allows businesses to easily adapt to changing needs and growth, making sure that the network infrastructure remains agile and responsive.

TD Africa (MSP) caters to Huawei, Cisco, Dlink, and other network infrastructure businesses. It can manage up to 65,000 network equipment concurrently, providing businesses with an intelligent solution for their networking needs.

“We are thrilled to introduce these innovative network services to the West African market,” said Mezie Emelonye, Head of TD Services at TD Africa.

“As the newly appointed authorised service centre for Huawei in the region, we are committed to providing our clients with the highest quality technology solutions and exceptional service.

“Our cloud-based services offer a significant leap forward in terms of speed, efficiency, and security, and we are confident that they will become the standard for network infrastructure in West Africa.”

TD Africa’s cloud-based network services are available to businesses of all sizes across West Africa.

For more information, visit [email protected].