Source: AFP
Consumer groups from eight EU countries filed complaints on Thursday against Meta, accusing the US company of illegally processing user data and using the “pay or consent” system as a “smoke screen” for privacy violations.
Meta has reaped rich financial rewards by selling Facebook and Instagram user data to advertisers, but its business model has pitted the US-based company against EU data privacy regulators.
In November, Meta launched a “pay or opt-in” system that allows users to withhold the use of their data for ad targeting in exchange for a monthly fee — a model that is already facing two challenges from privacy and consumer advocates .
Announcing the latest action, the European Union for Consumers (BEUC) called the scheme “a smokescreen to hide the real problem of massive, illegal processing of user data that continues regardless of what users choose”.
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Eight consumer groups in the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Spain are filing complaints with their local data protection authorities, the Brussels-based umbrella said in a statement.
The groups argue that Meta is still in breach of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which was at the root of the EU court cases against the online giant.
“It’s time for data protection authorities to stop Meta’s unfair data processing and violation of people’s fundamental rights,” said Ursula Pachl, deputy director general of BEUC.
BEUC said in its report that Meta violates principles of EU data law that require transparency, as well as limiting what user data it processes and what it is used for.
“Meta appears to be of the view that in order for the company to make money from advertising, the collection of any data about consumers’ activities, location, personalities, behavior, attitudes and emotions is justified,” the report said.
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“In reality, the massive exploitation of the privacy of hundreds of millions of European consumers for commercial gain does not respect several fundamental principles of the GDPR.”
A flurry of complaints
The Silicon Valley company allows Instagram and Facebook users in Europe to pay between 10 and 13 euros (about $11 and $14) a month to opt out of data sharing.
Under the GDPR, consent must be freely given, but BEUC argues that its model forces consumers to accept Meta’s processing of their personal data.
“The company also fails to demonstrate that the fee it imposes on non-consenting consumers is actually necessary, which is a requirement set by” the EU’s top court.
“Under these circumstances, the choice of how consumers want their data to be processed becomes irrelevant and therefore not free,” the report says.
The challenges are the latest in a cat-and-mouse game between the EU and the Meta.
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The EU’s data watchdog, the EDPB, told Meta in December that it could not use users’ personal data for targeted advertising without their express consent.
The EDPB is set to decide in the coming weeks whether a fee system like Meta’s breaks the bloc’s data privacy laws.
Thursday’s complaint is the third against Meta’s pay-or-consent scheme.
The BEUC in November said along with 19 of its members that they had lodged a joint complaint with the European network of consumer protection authorities against the scheme.
Before that, the privacy group NOYB, which has won countless victories against Meta and others, filed a complaint.
Source: AFP