(IntegrityPress.org) – Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta is proposing a paid-service that would allow users to opt-out of how the company collects users’ private information to target advertisements. The proposal is one way the company is attempting to address mandates from the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA).
The company collects myriads of private information, including by listening to users’ conversations without their consent or awareness, to target ads, or otherwise profit by sale of the information to third parties. EU regulators aren’t a fan of how the company hijacks and then profits by sale of the information, and are requiring the company to allow users to opt-out of the process.
The response from the company was to create a paid subscription as an alternative to its “free, inclusive, ad-supported” experience. The EU decided that the offer of a free ad-powered experience or a paid ad-free experience wasn’t good enough. They wanted to see a free service that steals less private information with the ability of users to consent to what specific information they wanted to share.
Critics have highlighted that the regulators are far less-interested in actually creating a free market that protects consumers and users and more interested in putting political pressure on Meta in the run-up to November’s general election.
Regardless, the process is ongoing with EU and Meta lawyers trading arguments and evidence until a final conclusion can be reached. It’s likely that there will be years or more before a final resolution is agreed upon.
Meta plans to cite the EU’s highest court: a 2023 ruling from the European Court of Justice determined that the proposal to offer users a paid service that doesn’t hijack user data for later sale complied with the DMA.
Meta’s European user base currently accounts for 10% of its user base, making it a significant chunk of the company’s advertising market. If the company ultimately loses its argument, it’ll have to find a new way to comply with European regulators, or risk heavy fines or pulling out of the market entirely.
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