The owner of Facebook and Instagram suggests requesting users' consent before using their online activity to target advertisements as a result of pressure from regulators.
The company announced it will ask its users for consent before showing behavioral ads in the future. It is unclear if Meta fully applies the consent requirement. Only the switch to consent for "certain data for behavioural advertising" has been made public by Meta thus far. However, the GDPR does apply to all forms of processing of personal data. There is no such thing as "behavioral advertising" in the law. It is uncertain if Meta would consider using a person's age or location to be a "behavior" and whether the consent criterion would be met if it did so.
Max Schrems: "We will see if Meta is actually applying the consent requirement to all use of personal data for ads. So far they talk about 'highly personalized' or "behavioural' ads and it's unclear what this means. The GDPR covered all types of personalization, also on things like your age, which is not a 'behaviour'. We will obviously continue litigation if Meta will not apply the law fully...After more than five years of litigation, Meta finally comes to the conclusion that it must ask people if its allowed to spy on them for ads. It took litigation by NGOs and a German Authority to get where we are now - while the Irish Regulator has consistently protected Meta"
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