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Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

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Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#31
post #5

So even if the fine sticks and doesn't get overturned on appeal, that's 390 million over 4 years of blatantly breaching the GDPR, so on average ~97M/year. This means it's merely a cost of doing business and they should continue.

They have also been ordered to stop doing what they're doing, and will face additional sanctions if they don't.

When calculating fines under the GDPR the supervisory authorities have to take in to account whether the violation was intentional, previous violations and compliance with previous orders.

In other words, if they don't stop now the fines will get bigger.

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#32
post #3

The title is a bit misleading. > Meta is now prohibited to bypass the GDPR via a clause in the terms and conditions. Meta has to get "opt-in" consent for personalized advertisement and must provide users with a "yes/no" option

It's one thing to provide on opt-in for new users, but will this mean retroactively resetting ALL users to no?

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spyware? This is about logging activity of users on the same app that you built, not tracking them across the internet. Writing down what someone does while interacting with your own business was never "criminalized" to begin with. Businesses do pay for this product. Unilaterally making tech products illegal after backlash in the media is precisely why capital is deallocated from Europe to other places with less reac…

It's not illegal, they just need to ask their users if it's ok. If there's nothing wrong with this practice, why would the users say no?

If I am understanding this correctly, GDPR means that you must legally accept free riders, ie. you cannot deny service if they don't want it.

Mandating companies to serve users who provide no value at all is an example of the regulatory requirements that spill down to hurting regular consumers and workers in Europe. You can see this across all sorts of fields, youth unemployment in Europe (for example) is a mess.

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#34
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Them "leaving", as in having no legal/corporate presence in, the EU wouldn't remove obligations under GDPR. They would have to block all access from EU citizens to do that.

In practice they will get away with it because good luck enforcing those penalties on a company without any assets you can reach.

They could press criminal charges against all Meta executives and extradite them from the US. Of course this is ridiculous and will never happen for a number of reasons, but it shows that the EU doesn't have literally no teeth.

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Child labor laws and minimum wage also made some revenue models untenable, and the world is better off for it. I want to live in a world where businesses can profit without having to spy on people. This is a good step in that direction.

Spy on people? If you like a post on Instagram it is core to their service that they log that information. If they didn't, the app wouldn't work very well.

"Personal data" as mentioned in the article includes more than just logging what posts you liked. I'm sure you knew that already.

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not illegal, they just need to ask their users if it's ok. If there's nothing wrong with this practice, why would the users say no?

If I am understanding this correctly, GDPR means that you must legally accept free riders, ie. you cannot deny service if they don't want it. Mandating companies to serve users who provide no value at all is an example of the regulatory requirements that spill down to hurting regular consumers and workers in Europe. You can see this across all sorts of fields, youth unemployment in Europe (for example) is a mess.

Courts so far seem to mostly have decided that if you are clear and upfront, you can offer "track me" and "I’ll pay you not to track me" as the two options. Very common in Germany.

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Child labor laws and minimum wage also made some revenue models untenable, and the world is better off for it. I want to live in a world where businesses can profit without having to spy on people. This is a good step in that direction.

Spy on people? If you like a post on Instagram it is core to their service that they log that information. If they didn't, the app wouldn't work very well.

Why do you participate in discussion about the GDPR when you clearly know nothing about it? Of course a "like" or any kind of data that is core to the service doesn't infringe the GDPR. The illegal part is about processing or forwarding personal data of users to third parties, when users haven't agreed to that aspect of the "service".

You usually see the distinction between "functional" and "advertising" cookies in those annoying banners, where you of course can't disable the former as that data is core to the functionality of the website. And guess what, if you don't do any shady stuff with user data you don't even need to display any banner (the banner is for getting explicit permission from the user to potentially do shady stuff).

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spyware? This is about logging activity of users on the same app that you built, not tracking them across the internet. Writing down what someone does while interacting with your own business was never "criminalized" to begin with. Businesses do pay for this product. Unilaterally making tech products illegal after backlash in the media is precisely why capital is deallocated from Europe to other places with less reac…

It's not illegal, they just need to ask their users if it's ok. If there's nothing wrong with this practice, why would the users say no?

> why would the users say no?

One can agree with the measure and disagree with its deployment. Here, a quasi-judicial body with opaquely-appointed members created a rule ex post facto. It’s a good opinion. But that sort of unpredictability obviously has a cost. (Agencies in America face similar criticism.)

Re: Meta prohibited from using personal data for advertisement

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not illegal, they just need to ask their users if it's ok. If there's nothing wrong with this practice, why would the users say no?

If I am understanding this correctly, GDPR means that you must legally accept free riders, ie. you cannot deny service if they don't want it. Mandating companies to serve users who provide no value at all is an example of the regulatory requirements that spill down to hurting regular consumers and workers in Europe. You can see this across all sorts of fields, youth unemployment in Europe (for example) is a mess.

> If I am understanding this correctly, GDPR means that you must legally accept free riders, ie. you cannot deny service if they don't want it.

That is more or less correct, although some newspapers in Europe are taking the gamble on that and there might be grounds for a middle-ground decision and amendment of the GDPR down the line.

> who provide no value at all

Disagreed, those users still provide value - not only can you still advertise to them based on public information (and users put out a lot of it by liking/following certain content) but they still strengthen the network effect of the product.

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