The Next Problem for Meta After Its Data Privacy Violations

The E.U. is going toe to toe with Meta once more, and the social network has conceded defeat yet again. After having taken Meta to task for various privacy violations and data breaches, the E.U. is now requiring Meta to provide European users with a way to opt out of behavioral advertising, which typically involves the display of advertisements customized by someone’s browsing habits and/or app usage. The threat of fines totaling $100,000 a day probably helped things along a little bit. Meta announced that they intend to change the legal basis they use to process certain data for behavioral advertising for users in the E.U., EEA and Switzerland from ‘Legitimate Interests’ to ‘Consent.’ As to the timing of the change, the company stated on the Meta blog that “… it will take time for us to continue to constructively engage with regulators to ensure that any proposed solution addresses regulatory obligations in the E.U., including GDPR.” Although Meta users outside of the E.U. are not affected, this may create additional pressure regardless, given these 32o many privacy and safety organizations located in the United States. No doubt they will be watching these developments closely to see what can be replicated.