Meta has yielded to European Union injunctions and will allow users in the Old Continent to opt out of targeted advertising.
In January 2023, Brussels imposed fines of €210 and €180 million on Facebook and Instagram respectively for breaching the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This sanction had the expected deterrent effect on Facebook’s parent company. From April 5, 2023Internet users who request it will no longer see advertisements related to the videos and content they have viewed on Meta’s social networks.
Facebook gives its users a little more control over their data Europeans, but does not abandon the idea of having the European decision invalidated. Europeans will be able to deactivate targeted advertising, but the procedure will be an obstacle course and the changes applied will only be partial. According The Wall Street JournalFacebook will make a form available to people who wish to stop receiving personalized ads.
Meta implements a procedure to disable targeted advertising, but does not say its last word
Following this procedure will not guarantee that you will no longer be “followed”. On the one hand, the decision to accede to user requests will remain the responsibility of the social network, Meta reserves the right to refuse some. Moreover, ad targeting will not be completely disabled. No matter what, users will always see ads related to their age and geographic location.
Meta complies while continuing its showdown with European regulators. With 2 billion daily active users, the company’s business model, based on personalized advertising, is far too important for it to agree to amputate without a fight. Will the half-measures and the deliberately restrictive procedure put in place by Meta to comply with the GDPR be enough to avoid lawsuits in the future? Nothing is less sure. According to the American financial daily, the tactic used by Meta, which asks users to “unsubscribe from the targeting program rather than asking for their consent from the start, could give rise to new complaints “.
