In the battle over the illegal use of personal data for advertisement, Meta has announced another variation that is not "Yes or No" consent: This time Meta will try "less personalized" ads, which may also annoy users into consenting. However, since 2018 the GDPR requires consent for advertisement. Until 2023 Meta has simply ignored that requirement. Last year Meta started to charge money for the "no" option - originally more than €240 per year. Now Meta announced the next round in this game with EU regulators: Instead of a simple yes/no banner, users shall have the option to get "less personalized ads" where data like location and date of birth will still be used - without consent. Also the "less personalized ads" will come as "full screen" ads that cannot be skipped. This approach is known from many "freemium" gaming apps, where the ads become so annoying that users are basically "annoyed" into consenting or paying. noyb has previously brought cases against Meta's pay-or-okay approach.
First Statement: Annoy people into consent? The new feature is only going to be rolled out in the next weeks and details are not publicly available so far.
Max Schrems, Chair of noyb: "I agree that 'less personalized' is 'less illegal' - but this does not mean Meta is now acting 'legal'. It is like being proud of selling 'less drugs'. Overall this just looks like another attempt to ignore EU law by annoying people into consent with huge unskippable ads. Users must have an equal choice between ads that use their personal data and ads that do not. We doubt that Meta's fourth iteration of trying to bypass EU law will be accepted."
Regulators enthusiastic after six years of 'cat and mouse'? Surprisingly the EDPB has already put out a statement that details the cooperation of regulators and the improvement in Meta's approach. The reality is that the Irish DPC has cooperated with Meta since 2018 to "bypass" the GDPR in various versions. So far, all of these approaches were either declared illegal by the Court of Justice of the EU or the EDPB - or both. However, Regulators are here to enforce the law - fully and right away. Having six years (since 2018) of "discussions" among themselves and with Meta, still playing cat and mouse is not really something to be proud of.
Pending Litigation. noyb has brought cases against Meta for the previous three versions of trying to bypass the GDPR (first arguing this would be a contract under Article 6(1)(b), then arguing a "legitimate interest" under Article 6(1)(f), then trying to force users to 'freely' consent or pay a € 250 fee under Article 6(1)(a)). We will closely monitor the next round of this game and always enforce the GDPR if Meta does not provide equal options for users that consent to tracking and those who do not.
Max Schrems, Chair of noyb: "The first announcement already seems questionable, as Meta says that you cannot opt-out from having your location or age be used. Also having unskippable ads and making the user experience just miserable is just another 'dark pattern' that Regulators have already previously found to be illegal. We doubt that this will be the end of the problems that Meta faces when ignoring the GDPR."
