The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that Meta Platforms cannot use the personal data it collects from Facebook for unlimited targeted advertising, even with users’ consent: This is serious bad news for companies that rely on advertising revenues in Europe and for Meta.
Stern warning to Meta: “You can’t, even if users want it!”
“An online social network such as Facebook cannot use all personal data obtained for the purposes of targeted advertising without restriction in terms of time and type,” the ruling announced on Friday reads. In this sense, social media platforms cannot use users’ personal data for ad targeting indefinitely and the processing of this data must be limited.
This decision is also in line with the data minimization principle of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Article 5(1)(c) of the GDPR requires companies to process data only to the extent necessary. This prevents personal data collected on platforms or through third parties from being unlimitedly analyzed and used for ad targeting.
With global concerns surrounding the training of artificial intelligence models, Facebook has made an unexpected confession.
In a statement, Meta claimed that they prioritize privacy in their products and do not use sensitive data provided by users for personalized ads.
This development coincided with a lawsuit filed against TikTok in the US state of Texas, alleging that it violated children’s online privacy. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleged that TikTok did not provide sufficient means for parents to control the privacy settings of their children between the ages of 13 and 17. TikTok denied these allegations and stated that it offers strong security measures for young people and families.
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