Social networks, 23.07.2024, 15:00 PM
Meta has been given until September 1 to respond to questions from the European Commission regarding its new advertising model that forces users to choose between paying a monthly subscription and consenting to have their personal data used for targeted advertising. The European Commission is concerned about Meta’s new practice, which has been described as misleading and confusing, and a potential breach of consumer protection laws. The Commission believes that users are under pressure to quickly choose between paying a monthly subscription or “losing access to their accounts and network of contacts”.
Meta, which introduced a subscription plan for European Union (EU) users at the end of 2023, has come under fire for essentially not being a choice at all but extracting a “privacy fee”, i.e. paying to exercise your data protection rights.
According to the European Digital Markets Act (DMA), companies that store users’ data must seek explicit consent before using their data to offer services that go beyond their basic functionality (eg advertising) or to provide access to a less personalized but equivalent version of the platform for those who refuse to engage in it.
According to the Commission’s opinion presented earlier this month, Meta’s model violates the DMA.
The commission further admonished Met for using vague terms and branding the service as “free” while in fact forcing users to consent to their data being used for personalized ads, as well as making the experience confusing by forcing them to “navigate through various screens” to see how their data is used and processed for advertising purposes.
Meta, however, considers the paid version to be a legitimate business model, citing a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) last July that the company can offer an equivalent alternative version of its service “for an appropriate fee” that does not rely on collecting However, it should be noted that the ruling applies to users signing up for Meta’s services, and not to existing users, and the issues discussed are related to changes to the consent model be interpreted as a legal precedent.
European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders says users should not be tricked into believing that they will either pay to stop seeing ads, or get the service for free if they agree to a company using their personal data to generate advertising revenue. He believes that companies “must inform consumers in advance and in a completely transparent manner about how they use their personal data. This is a basic right that we will protect”.
A few days ago, Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCPC) fined Meta $220 million after an investigation found that the company’s data sharing on Facebook and WhatsApp violated local consumer protection, data protection and privacy laws by collecting user information without their consent.
In May, Turkey also fined Meta with 37.20 million dollars for sharing data on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp.
Photo: Thought Catalog | Unsplash
Source: www.informacija.rs
