Giant Penalty for ‘Targeted Ads’ from Europe to Meta

Meta, the umbrella company of platforms with millions of users such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, received another huge penalty from the European Union. Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), announced that the US-based technology giant will have to pay hundreds of millions of dollars due to the use of user data.

This penalty, which could put Meta’s advertising business at risk, was given due to what happened on Facebook and Instagram. DPC’s statement said that the company’s violations of European Union privacy rules on Facebook 222 million dollars, Due to similar violations on Instagram, 191 million dollars was given to pay. This adds up to Meta in total. $413 million showed that he was punished.

Penalties for forcibly displaying personalized ads to users on Instagram and Facebook

Penalties, violation European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GPDR) stems from complaints received in 2018 when it entered into force. As it is known, users are asked to accept the terms of service agreement when signing up for Facebook and Instagram. In this contract, which is accepted without being read by most people, collection of data for personalized advertisements contains sections.

Due to Meta’s terms of service, users are asked to ‘show personalized advertisements in complaints’.forced’ expressed. The regulator, after consulting the European Data Protection Board, decided that the company did not find its updates clear enough and could not rely on the contract.

The DPC also says that Meta cannot use their contract to justify showing personalized ads to Facebook and Instagram users. This suggests that Meta may need to give users the ability to opt out of such ads to comply with the rules. In addition to fines, Meta’s activities within three months It was also among the statements that it should make it compliant with GDPR.

Meta says decision won’t prevent it from showing targeted ads

The technology giant stated that it did not agree with the decision. to object He said he was planning. The company, led by Mark Zuckerberg, also stated that these decisions will not prevent targeted ads, but are evaluating various ways to ensure that they continue to provide fully personalized advertising services. We can say that these statements are quite normal because the main job of the company is to show targeted ads by collecting large amounts of user data.

The $413 million fine adds to the massive fines Meta has received recently. The company had agreed to pay a $725 million penalty last week for the US election scandal in which user data was sold to Cambridge-Analytica. In addition, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced at the end of November that Meta was fined $275 million for leaking the information of millions of Facebook users.