Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: JAAP ARRIENS / NURPHOTO / NURPHOTO VIA AFP
The Noyb organization announced the filing of a complaint against Meta due to the data protection policy practiced by the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Now, both social networks offer its users two options: pay a subscription or let Meta exploit their personal information.
“Pay or accept”. It is in these terms that the Noyb organization summarizes the choice proposed for several days by Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram. These activists, who work in favor of the protection of privacy, have filed a complaint with the Austrian data protection authority and point the finger at Meta’s policy in this area.
From now on, the social networks of the company led by Mark Zuckerberg suggest that their users pay a subscription of 13 euros per month. If they refuse, Meta grants itself the right to use their personal information. A proposal that the Noyb organization considers illegal and contrary to European law. Also denouncing an “unacceptable” sum, she emphasizes the necessity of her approach. “If Meta succeeds, competitors will soon follow in its footsteps,” she writes on her website.
The “free will” of users
Concretely, Noyb relies on a decision of the European Data Protection Board which, last January, imposed a fine of 390 million euros on Meta for violations of data protection rules. Furthermore, the organization argues that the European Court of Justice (CJEU) ruled last July on the illegality of Meta’s processing of user data for the purposes of personalized advertising. The body then recalled the need to obtain free and fair consent from users.
Through this complaint, Noyb believes that introducing a paid formula does not allow this freedom of choice to be respected. “All available scientific research suggests that so-called ‘Pay or Okay’ systems are the antithesis of free consent and fundamentally affect the ‘free will’ of users,” the organization believes.
“Fundamental rights fees”
Finally, Noyb denounces a confidentiality “reserved for the rich” that Meta’s practices in this area induce. But also a price which “completely ignores the very different income levels between EU countries” which could become particularly prohibitive if other platforms were to imitate Meta. “According to Google, the average person has 35 apps installed on their smartphone. If all of these apps followed Meta’s lead and charged similar fees, users would have to pay a ‘fundamental rights fee’ of 8,815.80 euros per year.” , concludes the organization.