From April 5th: Personalized Advertising: These innovations are now imminent on Facebook

The Meta group on Facebook will give its users in Europe the opportunity to object to the collection of information about their online behavior for the purpose of ad personalization. Meta is changing the legal basis for data collection as the previous practice was ruled illegal by the relevant Irish Data Protection Authority earlier this year. The change will take effect on April 5, according to a blog entry.

Meta no longer wants to collect data on the basis of a contractual agreement with users, but claims a “legitimate interest” in it. This change also gives you the option to object to data collection. Personalized advertising is one of the cornerstones of the business model of the two most important meta services, Facebook and Instagram.

“An illegal practice versus another illegal practice.”

The change hasn’t gone far enough for data protection organization Noyb, whose complaints contributed significantly to the Irish data protection officials’ decision. “Meta exchanges one illegal practice for another illegal,” Max Schrems, the founder of NOEP, criticized. Instead of being able to “opt out” of data collection, prior consent is required to “opt in”. Noyb will immediately take action against the new model.

In January, Irish data protection officials discovered a breach of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and fined Meta €390 million. Meta confirmed Thursday that the group still believes it acted within the framework of the General Data Protection Regulation. Therefore, the objection to the decision will be filed further. With this change, the goal is to meet the requirements of data protection officers within a specified period.

Since 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has regulated the conditions under which personal data can be used. At the time, the Facebook group declared in its terms of use that personalized advertising was part of the service, which did not require separate consent.