EU tells Meta it can't paywall privacy

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.”

tearsintherain,
@tearsintherain@leminal.space avatar

Facebook and Instagram, two of the worst digital creations of all time in terms of sheer damage to human beings.

techwithjake,

Not to defend Instagram cause fuck Meta. I’m curious how it would’ve turned out if Meta didn’t buy them way back. Same with WhatsApp. Could they have been great apps now a days instead of deserving of our scourn?

HeavyRaptor,

I remember Instagram when it was new. It was an actually photography app. Of course it had the edgy filters (which ~15 year old me made full use of). But the pictures people posted actually had a bit of effort behind them.

Then it started becoming another mainstream social media where most pictures were about people’s lunches. I didn’t stick around for it’s final phase of business ads and thots.

I think it lost the cool factor by the time FB bought it but maybe it would’ve taken longer to become as ad-infested as it is today

techwithjake,

100% agree. Around for that time too. It’s why I wonder what it could’ve become.

Ain’t nothing wrong with posting mundane pictures. I mean, look at PixelFed. Same shit happening but no horrible ads, no crappy algo, nobody trying to sell you shit. Just people posting pics.

HeavyRaptor,

There is nothing inherently wrong about food pictures but I feel like it is a symptom of the focus shifting from trying to take quality pictures to showing off a nice dinner/vacation/car you had to your “friend” group.

There is a thin line between look at this cool thing and look at how much better my life is then yours. I kinda have a distaste for the second one. (That said I take food pictures all the time but mostly of stuff I made myself, though I don’t post it to social media)

archomrade,

The thing that jumps out to me here is that mobile data is apparently worth 20% more than web data and that in no way surprises me but very much pisses me off

Marighost,

It may be higher for two reasons. First thing I thought of, they’re accounting for Play Store/iOS fees. Second, I guarantee there’s loads more mobile users they can make a few more pennies off of.

archomrade,

As far as I know, the service fees only apply to apps that charge for their app or have in-app purchases. sorry, I misunderstood what you meant

I assume that difference has more to do with the value of ads being higher on a smartphone given the abundance of data that isn’t available via browser.

PM_Your_Nudes_Please,

Pretty sure it’s because both Apple and Google shave a commission off the top of any in-app purchases. So if you buy a subscription in the app, Meta would actually make less money. So to compensate, they increase the price for in-app purchases.

Alternatively, it could be because adblockers are less prevalent on mobile. Even casual desktop users have begun using adblockers, but very few people block ads on mobile.

Emmie,

Hmmm it looks like social media became a basic necessity, among some at least

The_Mastermind,

WARNING: THREAD CONTAINS BOOTLICKERS Hey there user tread lightly this thread have bootlickers .

Emmie,

We could do away with such attention seeking comments tbh, it’s good that some have different views imo because you can argue with them. Isn’t that the point of this site?

would you prefer for the comments to be all just long string of: “fuck meta” ?

lud,

Lemmy is really just an echo chamber.

bleistift2,

This is lemmy. Any valid argument is shat out by the devil himself if it might be construed to support the perceived “strong one” in a relationship.

Emmie,

Well it doesn’t have to be like this. We can choose to try to keep things more quality. Lemmy is us.

Baku,

It’s not really that bad. It was 1 single comment chain. If you don’t want to read the debate, it’s a fairly trivial task to collapse the parent comment and carry on with your day.

bobbytables,

Huh, I’m curious how this one turns out. Lots of German news outlets use some kind of privacy paywall for their websites. Its always some pop-up with “read the article for free with tracking or subscribe to [newspaper name] Pure/Plus”. So this might affect way more smaller companies than just Meta.

I mean I don’t like the choice but at least it’s a choice. Journalism costs money so they have to get their budget somewhere, I guess.

Samsy,

If I were an advertiser, the people who pay for privacy would become my primary target.

bleistift2, (edited )

I’m all for GDPR and really enjoy its protections, but I don’t understand this one. If facebook says they need €10/mo to provide their services and gives us the choice to either pay that or to pay with targeted ads, then how does that infringe upon our data [Edit: integrity autonomy]? The service seems to be worth something, so the EU cannot expect facebook to just give it out for less, can they? What’s the basis for this?

pearsaltchocolatebar,

Yeah, to me it sounds like Facebook is making targeted advertising opt-in, which is a good thing.

Ephera,

It should have been opt-in since the GDPR went into force. This is Facebook winding around it.

snooggums,
@snooggums@midwest.social avatar

Meta is currently acooping all my data as someone who does not a Meta account, which I would need to create ao I could pay them money not to do that.

No, not all the targeted advertising that they collect data for is through Facebook/whatever else they own now.

bleistift2, (edited )

That is a completely different issue. On the one hand, meta does collect data on people who do not have an account. [Edit: Source: consumerreports.org/…/how-facebook-tracks-you-eve…] This is simply illegal, since that collection is neither necessary nor consented to. The EU should finally put a stop to that.

On the other hand we have the voluntary relationship a user enters with facebook by creating an account. This is what the article is about and what I was referring to in my comment – the “binary choice between paying for a service and consenting to their personal data being used to provide targeted advertising”

lemmyreader,

On the one hand, meta does collect data on people who do not have an account. This is simply illegal, since that collection is neither necessary nor consented to. The EU should finally put a stop to that.

Good that you brought that up. And that deserves more attention!

archomrade,

They can still serve you ads, they simply cannot help themselves to your data.

LWD, (edited )

gives us the choice to either pay that or to pay with targeted ads,

Facebook never offered that choice. The only options were

  • Free: All of your data gets used and sold (and you get ads)
  • Paid: All of your data gets used and sold (except for the stuff that would usually be used to show ads)
racemaniac,

Just wondering, do you know that reading the article where it’s all explained in detail is an option?

Before the change 3% of facebook users agreed to be tracked, after “pay or be tracked” suddenly that jumped to over 90%. The entire point of GDPR is that privacy is a really hard thing to grasp, and that companies have capabilities most people can’t even imagine. So the GDPR demands consent to be given freely. Giving users the choice between yet another subscription or “consent” is clearly not free consent, your “free consent” doesn’t jump from 3% to 90% if you’re not basically coercing your users.

“yeah, but they have the option to pay”. Yeah, and then i can start paying for google (each service seperately with complex bundles of course), and facebook, and reddit, and twitter and tiktok and … and of course everyone has hundreds of dollars to spend on online services to continue using the internet the way we’ve been using it for a decade.

“yeah, but you could use other services”, yeah, i could go to a facebook alternative where none of my friends or family are. Or a youtube alternative where hardly anyone posts videos or… These sites have gained a natural monopoly by being free, and now suddenly i have to pay to not have my rights violated.

And will this long term mean sites like facebook, youtube, … become unprofitable and collapse? I for sure hope so yes. These companies gained a monopoly in big parts of the internet, and will make insane profits of being in that position either via ads or subscriptions. This is a terrible place for society to be in, and the sooner they collapse, the sooner we as society can start figuring out what would be a model that does work and isn’t hostile to its user.

ultratiem,
@ultratiem@lemmy.ca avatar

Privacy is a fundamental human right. It’s not a luxury or a means to extort or monetize customers. That’s why the EU is getting involved. Because companies like Meta will leverage them against monetization.

It’s like going to your doctor and having them tell you that unless you pay them $50 for the visit, they’ll sell your medical data to whomever.

A company has to build their services on top of privacy and security, not use either as a means to monetize or boost profits. That’s what the EU is fighting for. Because we all know what happens when it’s left up to the companies…

mavu,

I didn’t read the massive thread, no idea if the correct answer is already in there, but there seems to be a lot of text and the answer is realy short.:

This does not prohibit them from using Ads to finance the service.
It just prohibits data collection.
Those two things are not the same.

lud,

It also doesn’t prohibit Facebook from being a purely paid service.

TheEntity,

They can just charge €10/mo like every other company does, for example Netflix. They can’t offer it as an alternative to the “freely given consent”. It’s not freely given if the alternative is to pay to not give this consent.

pearsaltchocolatebar,

You’re free to not use Facebook.

Also, your argument breaks down because there are plenty of free streaming platforms that use targeted advertising as payment for their services.

If anything, Facebook doing this is surprising because they’re making data collection opt-in.

ZeDoTelhado,

The biggest problem with this approach is basically Facebook saying that you have to pay for a right, meaning, if the law tells you that you can, and should, always have a say if you are followed around or not, you mist have that capability. What Facebook is doing is put a right behind a paywall, which is absurd

pearsaltchocolatebar,

This is just about paying to not have ads, not about data collection.

bleistift2,

If I understand you correctly, you’re making the same argument as !snooggums above, so I’ll copy answer to them here:

That is a completely different issue. On the one hand, meta does collect data on people who do not have an account. This is simply illegal, since that collection is neither necessary nor consented to. The EU should finally put a stop to that.

On the other hand we have the voluntary relationship a user enters with facebook by creating an account. This is what the article is about and what I was referring to in my comment – the “binary choice between paying for a service and consenting to their personal data being used to provide targeted advertising”

humorlessrepost,

Are there any rights you think should supersede contracts? If so, how do you draw the line between rights that do and don’t?

bleistift2,

Are there any rights you think should supersede contracts?

That is beside the point I’m making. Facebook acknowledges the right to privacy by giving you the choice to pay for the service rather than giving up your data. In my view, this should be completely acceptable by the GDPR. No-one is forcing you to sign up to facebook, so you do have a completely free choice to (1) either not give up your data and not use facebook; or (2) not give up your data and pay for the service; or (3) give up your data and pay for the service that way.

bleistift2,

Are there any rights you think should supersede contracts? If so, how do you draw the line between rights that do and don’t?

(I’ll answer your question in a comment side-chain, just because you asked.)

Germans have the right to continued wage payments if they need to take care of family members (§616 BGB). However, that right can be voided in the employment contract.

(§618 BGB) essentially states that the work environment must be reasonably safe. This cannot be voided by contract, as is codified in (§619 BGB).

These are just instances. I do not know any general rules for the precedence of contracts over the law or vice versa.

HauntedCupcake,

Sorry, but why do you think that (§616 BGB) should be able to be voided by an employment contract?

bleistift2,

I’m not sure which meaning of ‘should be able to be voided’ you’re using. Do you mean ‘Why do think it’s legal to void it’ or ‘Why do you think it’s legitimate to be able to void it’?

In the first case: My employment contract does exactly this. It’s become kind of a default clause in contracts. Researching this you’ll find a lot of websites (in German) that say that the clause is ‘abdingbar’ (which I translated as ‘voidable’).

In the second case: I didn’t say I thought it legitimate, and I don’t have a strong opinion on this.

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

You’re free to not own or use a car. Should we have no rights when it comes to cars as well?

You’re free to not use the internet. Should we have no rights online?

garrett,
@garrett@infosec.pub avatar

But there’s also no ad-supported cars.

520,

Yet.

garrett,
@garrett@infosec.pub avatar

Only cause they can’t interject ads while driving lol

520,

They'll try, I'm sure. Tesla and law abiding don't go well together.

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

What does the monetization scheme have to do with whether or not we have consumer and privacy rights beyond how it infringes on them?

garrett,
@garrett@infosec.pub avatar

The point was that it’s apples to oranges. Monetization is kinda the key issue here unless you’re ready to declare Facebook a utility and publicly fund it. Personally, I’d rather we be rid of it entirely.

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

beyond how it infringes on them

garrett,
@garrett@infosec.pub avatar

Of course ad-supported services are infringing on your privacy in a way but if you’re not ready to call Facebook a publicly-funded utility, it’s childish to act like it’s so essential that it should be entirely ad-free with no paid tier.

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

You are presenting a false dichotomy and ads do not have to infringe on your privacy to the degree Facebook does it. There are gradients.

You’re reducing these arguments so much they’re losing the nuance that warrants the entire discussion. You’re also calling me childish to boot, which doesn’t give me much hope for the rest of this conversation

garrett,
@garrett@infosec.pub avatar

That is a valid, nuanced take that this article and (seemingly) the legislation don’t get into.

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

The first sentence of the article establishes my argument

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.

It’s the means of creating their targeted advertising that is in question. Not the act of advertising itself.

You’re arguing as if it says “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 having ads.” I encourage you to read the article If you haven’t already

DrWeevilJammer,
@DrWeevilJammer@lemmy.ml avatar

Not seeing ads for GEICO on your car’s dashboard doesn’t mean that Toyota isn’t gathering as much data as they can about you via the platform they built and then selling that information to GEICO.

As well as information about who you are, Toyota can also collect your “driving behavior.” This includes information such as your “acceleration and speed, steering, and braking functionality, and travel direction.” It may also gather your in-vehicle preferences, favorite locations saved on its systems, and images gathered by external cameras or sensors.

Some models of Toyota can also scan your face for face recognition when you enter one of its vehicles.

Source

garrett,
@garrett@infosec.pub avatar

And that is totally unreasonable collection, of course. It’s also completely incomparable to pretending that Facebook is as necessary as a car (at least in America).

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

If your bar is “we only have rights when it comes to things that we can’t live without“ then not only are you creating your own arbitrary standards that is not reflected in our society, but you should be angry if you think that’s how things work.

You have rights dude. Stop trying to win an online argument/defending business in such a bizarre way. There are limits to what they can do whether they re essential services or not.

Besides, you have kind of lost the thread here. It’s not about whether or not they can advertise or charge. It’s about how they collect and use your data in service of advertising (and more). It’s in the first sentence of the article.

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.

Facebook is free to have an ad tier and a pay tier. It’s about the data they collect and how it’s used.

pearsaltchocolatebar,

What right is being infringed upon? Facebook is saying your options to use a private service are to pay for it, or receive targeted advertising.

You’re free to just not use any meta products like I do.

BolexForSoup, (edited )
BolexForSoup avatar

It’s not about the advertising. It’s that you have to pay money to opt out of their aggressive data collection. The advertising is just one thing they do with your data.

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.

It’s the first sentence of the article.

bleistift2,

You have the right to not own a car. But if you do, you must have insurance for it (in Germany, at least). You cannot hide behind GDPR and say “I have a right to my data. I must not be asked to give it to any insurer without my consent.” You also need to have a driver’s license with your name and photo on it. GDPR doesn’t protect you there, either.

The bottom line is: Using a product may come with responsibilities or other concessions. You have the right to not use the product if the concessions aren’t worth it to you. You do not have the right to any product if you refuse the obligations that come with it.

This is, of course, my own opinion based on my understanding of how the world should work.

0x0,

Oh, by the way… you have all those rights, but from now on you can only have them if you pay 10$/mo, otherwise we’ll take it upon ourselves to switching on all telemetry and cameras in your car and pass that data on to insurers and others.

Actually… it doesn’t even qualify as analogy, more like premonition.

BolexForSoup, (edited )
BolexForSoup avatar

They can’t assign any concessions they wants that’s the entire point. You have rights you can’t sign away even if you want to. I mean dude you’re defending facebook, arguably the single worst company when it comes to respecting user data and privacy. Your assumption should be they are probably wrong until proven otherwise.

bleistift2,

I mean dude you’re defending Meta, arguably the single worst company when it comes to respecting user data and privacy

That’s argumentum ad hominem. If the law means what you think it means, it applies whether we’re talking about EvilCorp or SaveTheWhaleChildrenBeeFluff.

Also recall the very first thing I said on this topic:

I’m all for GDPR and really enjoy its protections, but I don’t understand this one.

I’m playing devil’s advocate in order to gain insight, because I have no clue how this board reaches its conclusions.

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

I’m playing Devil’s advocate

Don’t it’s obnoxious and not insightful. It’s how teens test drive arguments without repercussions.

TheEntity,

Firstly, this is not “my argument”, this is EU’s argument.

Secondly, none of these platforms present it as a choice between paying and giving the kind of consent that by law needs to be optional and freely given.

Thirdly, being free to not use a service that is breaking the law does not make it any less illegal.

umbrella,
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

not really, its so ubiquitous some of their services cant be not used.

its impossible to exist in my country without whatsapp, most businesses do their customer service through whatsapp now.

lemmyreader,

its impossible to exist in my country without whatsapp, most businesses do their customer service through whatsapp now.

My goodness. That is incredibly sad :(

0x0,

No, it’s not. It’s just less convenient.

yetAnotherUser,

That’s like saying the US has functional public transit, it’s just less convenient.

umbrella,
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

hahah i wish

bleistift2,

The do charge €10/mo like every other company does, and they add the possibility to not pay and rather see targeted advertisement. How is that worse?

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

This assumes everyone who values privacy can afford another $10mo sub in their life or that it should cost money in the first place. In an issue of consent that shouldn’t be the case.

bleistift2,

You’re framing this as if a facebook account were mandatory. If you can’t afford $10 per month, don’t use facebook. I don’t.

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

I never said anything of the sort and I don't know why whether or not the service is mandatory matters. That isn't the bar for us to have consumer/privacy rights.

pearsaltchocolatebar,

Using Facebook is not something that’s necessary. You’re asking a company to give away services for free.

The whole reason it’s free is because you are the product, and it’s almost always been that way. If you value your privacy and don’t want to pay for Facebook, that’s a personal decision, and the government shouldn’t be involved.

BolexForSoup,
BolexForSoup avatar

You are conflating a lot of different things here and I’m a little too busy at work today to completely disentangle it, but the short version is that none of us are ignorant about what “free“ means online. That is not the debate here so I’m not sure why you’re going off on that when I don’t even disagree there in the first place. It’s just not relevant.

DrWeevilJammer,
@DrWeevilJammer@lemmy.ml avatar

Let’s say that I’ve never had a Facebook account, but Facebook still has a lot of data it has collected about me from multiple sources, including other Facebook users, who might post photos that I am in, or share information about me in posts, neither of which i gave consent to anyone to share.

Is it fair that my only option to protect my private information is to CREATE a Facebook account and pay them to STOP collecting and selling my private information?

pearsaltchocolatebar,

That’s not what is happening here. Facebook is offering to let you pay for an ad free experience. It has nothing to do with shadow profiles.

krcr,

They can put all the ads they want to finance their services, but if they want to use targeted ones, they have to ask for unbiased users consent.

bleistift2,

Suppose non-targeted ads didn’t generate enough revenue. Would it then be legitimate to require facebook to provide their service at a loss?

ArcticDagger,

I would say no. Just as it’s not legitimate for any other business to break the law even if that means they’re not going to be profitable

bleistift2, (edited )

I can’t find the word ‘unbiased’ in the GDPR. All it asks for is consent:

  1. Processing shall be lawful only if and to the extent that at least one of the following applies:

a) the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one or more specific purposes;

In the case of facebook, the user gives consent for the purpose of being served targeted advertising in exchange for the provided service.

[Edit:] Found something:

When assessing whether consent is freely given, utmost account shall be taken of whether, […] the provision of a service, is conditional on consent to the processing of personal data that is not necessary for the performance of that contract. Article 7, paragraph 4 GDPR

So the question of whether the pay-or-consent model is legal hinges upon the question of whether payment (in any form) is “necessary for the performance of that contract“.

krcr,

Yes the term is “freely given consent” indeed, but more importantly: Why would you not trust the EU Data Protection Board if they say themselves that consent-or-pay is not okay?

pelespirit,
@pelespirit@sh.itjust.works avatar

Noice. I hope meta doesn’t finagle their way out of it.

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