It was an expected development and was confirmed today. This Tuesday, the European Center for Digital Rights (noyb, its English abbreviation) filed a lawsuit against Meta for activating a subscription plan that forces European users to go online. Facebook And instagram Those who do not want to be tracked for advertising purposes must pay a monthly fee of 13 euros or over 250 euros annually.
The complaint filed by this Austrian non-profit organization ensures that this is a “strategy to circumvent the law” by the American tech giant. privacy” European Union (EU). In January, the European Data Protection Board fined Meta €390 million and ordered it to seek users’ consent to profit from Meta. personal information. In July, the EU Court of Justice ruled that the company’s processing of this data advert It was illegal for it to be personalized.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led company then decided to introduce a charging option starting from the beginning of November, forcing users to choose. Who wants to use a version of Facebook or Instagram without one? ads Depending on your behavior you will have to pay 12.99 euros per month; From March 2024, each additional linked account will cost an additional 8 euros.
EU law recognizes that users’ consent is only valid if it is “freely” given. Noyb denounced Meta as “exercising the exact opposite of a truly free choice” by tying this choice to an economic cost based on privacy. “How many people would continue to exercise their right to vote if they had to pay 250 euros to vote?” the lawyer asked. he asks. Maximum Schrems, the driver of the request, made a statement. “There were times when fundamental rights It was reserved for the rich. “It seems Meta wants to take us back more than a hundred years.”
Information collected by this organization for the defense of digital rights shows that only 3% to 10% of users want to transfer their personal data, but when faced with a ratio, more than 99% choose not to pay. “All available scientific research suggests that ‘Pay or OK’ systems are the antithesis of the free system approval and fundamentally affects freewill users,” they complain.
Finally, the complaint submitted to the Austrian Data Protection Authority on Tuesday states that the subscription fee proposed by Meta is “disproportionate” and could create a domino effect in the country. Internet This results in harm to citizens. “If Meta gets his way, his rivals will soon follow in his footsteps,” they warn. “Taking into consideration telephone average 35 Applications Protecting privacy could soon cost around 8,815 euros per year.
Schrems warned that this is the first but not the last case they will file against the media giant. social networks.