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 con

EU tells Meta it can't paywall privacy

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2024-04-18 13:30:07

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.

The EDPB opinion [PDF] published yesterday addresses whether it is valid in terms of data protection law to process personal data for the purposes of behavioral advertising in the context of "consent or pay" models as introduced by Meta.

It followed requests by the Dutch, Norwegian, and Hamburg Data Protection Authorities and complaints about Meta, the social media company that owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.

"Most users consent to the processing in order to use a service, and they do not understand the full implications of their choices," EDPB chair Anu Talus said in a statement.

The request from data protection authorities followed complaints by consumer and privacy organizations about Meta's decision to introduce a so-called "pay or okay" model.