That is what the European Data Protection Board would demand, writes ‘The Wall Street Journal’. The EDPB has not yet confirmed this. The Board is the umbrella organization of European privacy regulators, including the Belgian Data Protection Authority.
According to the newspaper, the EDPB has instructed the Irish privacy watchdog to act against Meta. Such an order is binding; action must therefore be taken against the social medium within a month. This has to be done in Ireland, because that is where Meta’s European headquarters is located.
The EDPB wants Meta to stop offering personalized ads on Facebook and Instagram that users do not explicitly opt for. At the moment, users cannot indicate that they do not want to see personalized advertisements on Facebook or Instagram. Meta has included in the terms and conditions that users automatically agree to this when they sign it.
According to the European regulators, Meta thus violates the GDPR privacy directive. Noyb, the foundation of privacy activist Max Schrems, also had that complaint. He had filed a complaint about Meta, with which the EDPB now says it agrees. The Irish privacy regulator said for years that Meta’s conduct was legal, but the European watchdog now contradicts that.
The ruling is likely to be made public later this month, forcing the Irish regulator to take over the decision. It could spell a major setback for Meta.