The EU’s Data Protection Board (EDPB) has told large online platforms they should not offer users a binary choice between paying for a service and consenting to their personal data being used to provide targeted advertising.
In October last year, the social media giant said it would be possible to pay Meta to stop Instagram or Facebook feeds of personalized ads and prevent it from using personal data for marketing for users in the EU, EEA, or Switzerland. Meta then announced a subscription model of €9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on iOS and Android for users who did not want their personal data used for targeted advertising.
At the time, Felix Mikolasch, data protection lawyer at noyb, said: “EU law requires that consent is the genuine free will of the user. Contrary to this law, Meta charges a ‘privacy fee’ of up to €250 per year if anyone dares to exercise their fundamental right to data protection.”
They aren’t attacking the business model, they are specifically attacking Facebook because it is distorting the market and destroying competition.
But this rule is all but exclusive to companies that are so big they are operating in a non-competitive market as defined by new EU regulations. Companies can still do it, Facebook and five others can’t. If your platform gets so big that people can’t find alternatives easily, you get on the list, and you can’t do that any more either.
There is no requirement on Facebook to offer a free service. They can ask for as much money they want or not ask for money. They just can’t make data harvesting mandatory for any customers. This is not a judgment of the business model, this is just acknowledging that some platforms have become so big that you can’t live your life without them, so their interest to free commerce and self-determination is secondary to the basic right to privacy that all EU citizens have.
You can absolutely live your life without Facebook.
I know people who lived without Facebook for years who created an account just to get info from their kids’ sports clubs. A lot of them only post data about events and stuff on the Facebook page. No newsletters or anything. Just Facebook.
They don’t really have a choice. You don’t want to ask other parents all the time and they won’t send you an email specifically because you won’t create a profile.
I fully agree with your statement. But in the case above the only alternative is to either annoy other parents every week, not send your kids to scouts camp with all their friends, or just create the profile and only look at those pages.
A lot of clubs removed their website in favour of a private Facebook page. It’s unfortunate, but a reality. :(
I have been for years. It was a massive improvement when I deleted my Facebook account.
Likewise. I only still have it for our neighborhood group chat and occasionally marketplace, but that’s maybe a twice a year thing.
The point is, not everyone can. Some businesses only have Facebook pages as their online presence. The network effects, especially in the older generations, are still very strong.
The EU had to draw the line somewhere. Facebook is over that line with the amount of people still on there.
You’re also free to not give business to places that only have Facebook pages as their online presence.
Facebook is not a necessity. Full stop.
I think you don’t understand the issue. The problem is not whether you can get around using Facebook in your life, the problem is whether people in general will get around using it. The numbers show they won’t, so they need to be regulated in order to protect free markets.