Eight EU consumer organizations target Meta in privacy complaint by ET BrandEquity

Metaplatforms was hit with a privacy complaint on Thursday as eight EU consumer groups called on the watchdog group to take action against Facebook owners for violating EU privacy rules when they stole user data.

The complaints by consumer groups in the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain to their national data protection authorities are the latest complaints against Meta’s trove of user data.

Consumer groups say that Meta does not comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules on fair processing, data minimization and purpose restriction, and that its data collection and processing has no legal basis. he claimed.

“Surveillance-based business models create all kinds of problems under the GDPR, and it is time for data protection authorities to stop Meta’s unfair data processing and violation of people’s fundamental rights,” European Consumers said. said Ursula Pacul, Deputy Director-General of the Agency. statement.

He also criticized Meta’s recent launch of paid, ad-free subscriptions to Facebook and Instagram in Europe, which the company said was aimed at complying with new EU technical rules. Ta.

But critics say this amounts to users having to pay for privacy. Users who don’t care about ads can continue to use both services for free.

“What Meta is offering consumers is smoke and mirrors to mask its age-old essence: collecting all kinds of sensitive information about people’s lives and monetizing it through an invasive advertising model.” Puckle said.

Meta said its ad-free subscriptions keep pace with the latest regulatory developments, guidance and rulings shared by European regulators and courts in recent years.