TL;DR: Meta’s practice of
requiring users to consent to tracking via their terms is not legal according to the GDPR.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp must offer a Yes & No option so that users can actively give consent – or refuse. This
is a huge blow to Meta’s business model of surveillance-based advertising.

Decision of EU privacy regulators

In a far-reaching decision on Monday, EU privacy regulators, said that Meta Platforms Inc. must not force users to agree
to personalized ads based on their online activity. The ruling could enormously limit the data that Meta can use to sell
targeted ads.

Simply putting a paragraph into the terms of service – to which users have to agree – is not sufficient according to the
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Such terms are no justification to collect data and post targeted ads. Instead,
Meta platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp must give users a clear Yes & No choice where they can actively agree
to being tracked – or refuse.

The tech giant’s so-called forced consent to continue tracking and targeting users by processing their personal data
to build profiles for behavioral advertising has been added to Meta’s terms after the publication of the GDPR in 2018. Now
it has been declared illegal by EU privacy watchdogs.

This decision followed complaints that were filed by European privacy NGO noyb as soon as the GDPR came into force in May 2018.
It took the EU about 4.5 years to finally decide on the issue.

The reason for this lengthy process is that the
Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has originally declared that Meta’s updated terms meet the requirements by the
GDPR. Ireland is Meta’s main privacy regulator in the bloc because that is where Meta’s
European headquarters is