{"id":25727,"date":"2023-12-06T06:17:38","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T14:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/?p=25727"},"modified":"2024-01-23T10:05:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T18:05:07","slug":"metas-new-ad-free-subscriptions-are-already-under-legal-attack-from-privacy-activists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privateinternetaccess.com\/blog\/metas-new-ad-free-subscriptions-are-already-under-legal-attack-from-privacy-activists\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta\u2019s New Ad-Free Subscriptions Are Already Under Legal Attack from Privacy Activists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back in August we wrote about Meta\u2019s surprise announcement<\/a> that it would seek consent from users in the EU, EEA, and Switzerland before showing them behavioral advertisements. A few weeks ago, Meta provided more details<\/a> of the proposed change. It turned out that users would be required to pay a substantial subscription fee \u2013 \u20ac120 (about $130) a year on the web, or \u20ac156 (about $170) a year on iOS and Android \u2013 to remove ads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, the privacy activist Max Schrems said that his organization noyb.eu \u201cwould fight this up and down the courts\u201d because this approach \u201cwould mean only the rich can enjoy these rights, at a time when many people are struggling to make ends meet.\u201d Schrems has now made good on that promise<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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noyb filed a complaint against Meta with the Austrian data protection authority. European users now have the \u201cchoice\u201d to either consent to being tracked for personalized advertising \u2013 or pay up to \u20ac251.88 a year to retain their fundamental right to data protection on Instagram and Facebook. Not only is the cost unacceptable, but industry numbers suggest that only 3 percent of people want to be tracked \u2013 while more than 99 percent decide against a payment when faced with a \u201cprivacy fee.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Under the EU\u2019s GDPR, consent to online tracking and behavioral ads is valid only if it is \u201cfreely given.\u201d According to Schrems, that is not the case with Meta\u2019s new payment option because anyone who refuses to give their consent is forced to pay a hefty \u201cprivacy fee\u201d of around $275. The post on the noyb.eu site points out that according to Meta\u2019s earning presentation<\/a> for the third quarter of 2023, the average quarterly revenue per user in Europe between Q3 2022 and Q3 2023 was $16.79. This equates to an annual revenue of around $67 per user, which makes the proposed \u201cprivacy fee\u201d disproportionately high, increasing the pressure on users to agree to being tracked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The noyb post makes another important point: if Meta is permitted to charge his kind of fee, other social media companies might see it as permission to do the same. According to noyb\u2019s calculations:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If Meta is successful in defending this new approach, it is likely to set off a domino effect. Already now, TikTok is reportedly testing<\/a> an ad-free subscription outside the US. Other app providers could follow in the near future, making online privacy unaffordable. According to Google<\/a>, the average person has 35 apps installed on their smartphone. If all of these apps followed Meta\u2019s lead and charged a similar fee, people would have to pay a \u201cfundamental rights fee\u201d of \u20ac8,815.80 a year. For a family of four, the price of data privacy would rise to \u20ac35,263.20 per year \u2013 more than the average full-time income in the EU.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That \u20ac35,263.20 per year for a family of four \u2013 around $38,000 \u2013 may be something of an exaggeration, but the point remains: if Meta is permitted to do this, others are likely to follow suit. Schrems is not the only one concerned about the impact of Meta\u2019s new fee on privacy and on consumers. Before noyb\u2019s legal action against Meta was filed, Norway\u2019s data protection regulator said that it was \u201clooking into<\/a>\u201d bringing its own case against the company. According to Wired, the concern in Norway is that if they pay, users won\u2019t see behavioral ads, but that \u201cMeta will still track you, they will still collect the data.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s also a point that BEUC, the European umbrella group for 45 independent consumer organisations from 31 countries, is worried about. The organization has announced that it has filed its own complaint<\/a> against Meta with a network of European consumer protection authorities, alleging that that the company is engaging in \u201cunfair commercial practices in multiple ways.\u201d In addition, BEUC says it is \u201calso assessing whether Meta is infringing data protection law (the GDPR).\u201d BEUC identifies four main issues. It claims:<\/p>\n\n\n\n