Norway strikes a blow for Meta users’ privacy
Showing considerable judgment and a commitment to protecting the privacy of its citizens, Datatilsynet, the Norwegian data protection authority, has imposed a temporary ban on Meta targeting users with personalized ads based on their online activity or estimated locations on both Facebook and Instagram from August 4.
The ban means these social networks will only be able to use information users provide in their profiles, and it will be be evaluated in November. Meta will only be able to resume activity, if it can find a way to legally process personal data and grants users the possibility to opt out of receiving hyper-segmented advertising based on tracking.
The company is therefore obliged to discontinue all types of targeted advertising that use information it gleans from users, and if it fails to do so it must pay a daily fine of about €89,500. The ban follows the decision of the European Court of Justice on July 4 that ruled what we already knew: Meta was illegally collecting data from individuals to target them with hyper-personalized ads without their explicit consent, based on what it called the company’s “legitimate interest.” Well no, it is absolutely not “legitimate” for you to use all the information you are able to capture to resell it to third parties and then bombard users with ads based on it. Not only is it not “legitimate”…
