Facebook and Instagram are banned from using targeted ads in Europe
Metas Facebook and Instagram will have to stop using targeted ads on their platforms for even longer, just months after a temporary ban from the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (DPA) came into effect in July.
Now Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) is set to ban the processing of personal data for targeted advertising, and the impact will be felt across the European Economic Area (EEA), including EU countries and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
The ābinding decisionā was issued by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), which ordered the Irish DPC to impose the ban within two weeks.
The restriction effectively prohibits Meta from using personal data to inform the ads it serves on Facebook and Instagram, in a process known as ābehavioral advertising.ā
The news comes after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) found that the social media giant’s GDPR approach to behavioral advertising was not in line with EU regulations.
Meta was fined ā¬1.2 billion earlier in May and ordered to take a series of steps to comply with the rules, the agency said. Irish DPC.
The company also has ad-free plans on its cards, meaning it charges more to phone subscribers than internet subscribers to cover the extra processing fees that mobile app stores incur, much like X.
They cost ā¬9.99 and ā¬12.99 per month respectively and will be made available across the EEA, indicating that the company has already prepared to tackle the issue of personal data processing and growing concerns about privacy across the continent.
Ny Breaking asked Meta to share more information, but the company did not immediately respond.