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EU tells Meta it can't paywall privacy (www.theregister.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

37 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The EU's Data Protection Board (EDPB) has told large online platforms they should not offer users a binary choice between paying for a service and consenting to their personal data being used to provide targeted advertising.

In October last year, the social media giant said it would be possible to pay Meta to stop Instagram or Facebook feeds of personalized ads and prevent it from using personal data for marketing for users in the EU, EEA, or Switzerland. Meta then announced a subscription model of €9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on iOS and Android for users who did not want their personal data used for targeted advertising.

At the time, Felix Mikolasch, data protection lawyer at noyb, said: "EU law requires that consent is the genuine free will of the user. Contrary to this law, Meta charges a 'privacy fee' of up to €250 per year if anyone dares to exercise their fundamental right to data protection."

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 7 months ago (8 children)

Too bad that i left its platforms due to it.

That said, i dont expect this to be their last exploit of user rights.

Its actually fairly fast reaction from EU considering they ok introduced their pay or ok model in November.

I dont believe that paying really was a viable option anyway, as they set the price so high but it could be interesting to see how many actually chose to pay!

[–] [email protected] 25 points 7 months ago (6 children)

I was close to it. I'm an advocate for paying for services I use. We're way too used to getting everything for free and we should be willing to pay for services we appreciate.

Which made me realise that Facebook especially I don't appreciate. So I quit instead. It had value to me once but those times are long gone.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What bugged me and ultimately drove me to leave Instagram was the wording. In the prompt, they said something along the lines of "we will not use your data for advertising". And I thought, wtf, I don't want you to collect my data in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I read it as "no, we won't use your data for advertising, but collect it anyways. If you ever dare to stop paying, we'll retroactively process this data, too"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Therein lies the uselessness of the subscription. It doesn't guarantee privacy, only that they won't abuse it while your subscription is active.

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