• Meta Platforms Inc. was fined €390 million ($414 million) by the European Union’s main privacy watchdog for the way users’ data is used for personalized ads on its Facebook and Instagram units.
• The Irish Data Protection Commission found that Meta’s terms of service requiring users to accept personalized ads when signing up to the social media services violated EU rules.
• The EU ruling is not about third-party data, but rather first-party data; Meta argued that using first-party user data for advertising is integral to the service, and thus they can make access to their services contingent upon agreeing to letting one’s data be used for advertising.
• The EU disagreed, finding that Meta was illegally “forcing” users to let their data be used for personalized advertising.
• Meta must now offer personalized social networking to users without tying that to offering personalized ads, which is likely to have a broad impact on companies that use first-party data for advertising.
Published January 11, 2023. Visit Stratechery to read Ben Thompson’s original post.
