The use of users’ personal data without asking for their opinion to send them targeted advertising may soon end. In a ruling published on July 4, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) inflicted a new setback on Tuesday on Meta, the parent company of the social network Facebook, accused of illegally collecting and processing personal data for targeted advertising purposes. .
The American group had already been forced in early April to modify the legal basis on which it relied to personalize ads in order to comply with the European Personal Data Regulation (RGPD).
He claimed from his “legitimate interest”, a legal figure used by companies when the processing of personal data they carry out does not significantly affect the rights and interests of the affected persons.
For privacy groups, which are trying to force Facebook to seek consent from its users for such processing, this is a victory that could have dire consequences for the social network.
No longer “bypassing” the GDPR
The decision “further clarifies the fact that Meta cannot simply circumvent the GDPR with a few paragraphs in its legal documents,” Austrian activist Max Schrems, head of the Noyb association, said in a statement.
Contacted by AFP, Meta replied “to be in the process of evaluating the decision.” The company is still trying to enforce its right to use legal grounds other than consent for targeted advertising. A year ago, the TikTok app also planned to resort to “legitimate interest” before suspending its update.
The CJEU, which was requested by the German federal competition authority in the context of a preliminary question, also ruled that the authorities dealing with competition matters within the Member States could, under certain conditions, examine the compliance of companies with the GDPR to determine a situation of abuse of a dominant position.
For the president of the German authority, Andreas Mundt, “the sentence sends a strong signal for the application of competition law in the digital economy, an area where data is decisive for market power,” he said on Twitter.
If Facebook were forced to obtain users’ consent to track their activity, the financial consequences could be significant. The company had already gone awry in 2021, when Apple forced it to seek feedback from iPhone users to track its users’ activity outside of the app.
Source: BFM TV
