An interview with Erin Egan, CPO at Meta about EU regulations

In an interview with The Irish Times, Erin Egan, the Chief Privacy Officer at Meta, discusses how she navigates a complex and increasingly high-stakes role, particularly with the mainstream emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI). Egan likens the current technological shift to the internet revolution of the 1990s, highlighting Meta's ambitious plans to integrate AI into hundreds of millions of businesses, with investments of billions in 2025 alone to build data centres and expand capacity. 

Despite Meta's aspirations, consumer apprehension about privacy and data usage for AI training remains, particularly in the EU, where new legislation aims to address these fears. Egan notes that Meta's initial plans to expand AI into the EU in 2024 were paused by data protection authorities (DPAs), with Meta AI only recently appearing in WhatsApp and Messenger for European users. Having been with Meta since 2011, Egan has guided the company through numerous global regulatory battles and anticipates facing more challenges.

While Egan supports calls for regulation, she emphasises the need for less complexity and a balanced approach that considers both the fundamental right to privacy and the freedom to conduct business, focusing on high-risk areas without impeding technological progress. Highlighting the challenges posed by digital laws, Egan points to the over 100 regulations impacting the digital sector in the EU, with more than 70 new pieces of digital legislation adopted in the last six years, making it the most challenging region for Meta and, by extension, small businesses, to operate.