Norway has succeeded in getting the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) to make permanent and extend across Europe its ban on Meta (Facebook’s parent company) harvesting user data for targeted ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Watch them cry foul, threaten to pull out, start a legal fight, then go nowhere like the abusive type they are.
I wish they would pull out. It’s fucking ridiculous that so much of Europe is apparently just ok with using a Meta product for the defacto texting platform (WhatsApp).
Eh, it’s not like we started using it because it was Meta’s. They bought it when it was already popular, and switching everyone to something else is difficult.
Yeah, WhatsApp was ported to basically every single platform that was relevant in 2009-2010 when it launched: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Series 40 and Windows Phone. Supporting Blackberry and Nokia mobile OS which were huge at the time as well as the new smartphone OS’s was genius.
I mean that’s basically the same difference. It’s owned by the same company.
Better than the US, at least in Europe you are not forced to buy a specific device just to be able to communicate.
Who knows, if Facebook gets severely limited by these laws, maybe we’ll all switch to Signal or something.
You’re not forced to buy a specific device there. They all text each other fine. You just don’t get fancy iMessage features if you’re on Android.
Watch them cry foul, threaten to pull out
Ofc. But childish maneuvers are generally less effective in Europe where authorities are still authorities and not just the revenge actors with the bigger guns.
Meta’s practices also collected protected data like race, religion, and sexual orientation. Meta disputed that it needed explicit consent, arguing that agreeing to terms of service was enough, but courts rejected this.
Oh please let this be the beginning of a global backlash against corporate EULA’s and the start of a path towards a few well understood EULA’s, similar to how we have a few well understood FOSS licenses.
Cool
[chuckles evilly in Norwegian]
This is awesome but I don’t really understand.
The purported issue is that they don’t have explicit consent for some data points. They apparently responded by saying they were going to charge a subscription.
Why wouldn’t they just get consent? I’m sure most fb users will just agree to anything put in front of them.
Facebook collects data from various sites and doesn’t care if you are a user or not.
How can you get a consent from someone who doesn’t even know facebook collects data from?
This is the funny thing. You don’t. It has to be informed consent. ヾ(⌐■_■)ノ♪