The European Union wants to prevent the forced collection of user data by tech giants. EU privacy regulators say, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, cannot force users to consent to data collection.
European Union lawmakers have apparently passed new rulings on social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram, which will make major changes to how they collect user data and protect their privacy.
European Union privacy regulators say, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, cannot compel users to agree to data collection and obtain mandatory consent from users to join Meta, according to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters.
According to these decisions, other social platforms such as Meta cannot force users to consent to the collection of their data in order to create an account. This decision will be a major change in the way social networks work and a structural reform in privacy laws.
It should be noted that the details of the new decisions of the legislators have not yet been officially published. But these decisions will be a threat to the social media giant’s business model and will change the company’s financial infrastructure. Under these decisions, Meta can no longer force users to accept the company’s policy to create Facebook and Instagram accounts and have their data used for targeted advertising.
An end to targeted ads and data collection of meta users
To create an account on Facebook and Instagram, users must accept Meta’s privacy policy, otherwise, they cannot have an account. EU privacy legislators consider such an approach contrary to user privacy laws and have made new decisions in this regard. Legislators have declared that Meta’s policy approval constitutes a form of forced consent and is inconsistent with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the EU’s overarching privacy law.
As he said, the decisions made by the European Union legislators have not yet been officially announced, but only some of them have been published in the media. It should also be added that these decisions don’t just affect Meta, any other company that offers targeted advertising is almost as exposed as the social media giant.
