Attorney Athanasios Rantos from the Court of Justice of the European Union warned Meta against using publicly available information about a user’s sexual orientation for targeted advertising on Facebook within the framework of EU data protection laws. The warning was issued against the background of a case involving privacy activist Max Schrames and Facebook.
In this case, Max Schrams from Austria is challenging Facebook’s use of personal data for targeted advertising. Facebook’s terms of service allow the company to use personal data for advertising, even if the data is publicly accessible. The activist claims that this violates the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which requires explicit consent to process sensitive data such as sexual orientation.
Facebook uses personal data, including demographics, interests, behaviors, locations and friend relationships, for targeted advertising. However, a Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg that Facebook “does not use sensitive data that users provide to us to personalize ads.”
Facebook’s compliance with the GDPR has been the subject of scrutiny, particularly in light of incidents such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which Facebook user data was misused for political purposes. Since then, Facebook has responded to GDPR violations by trying different strategies to comply with the regulations. Still, Facebook has repeatedly failed to fully comply with the GDPR with its repeated breaches.
In the case of the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) last year, Facebook lost the EU Supreme Court battle About the German antitrust order that focused on Facebook’s ability to profit from user data. The FCO found that Facebook’s privacy policy breached users’ privacy rights, and the company breached the GDPR by unlawfully collecting and combining user data.
The case between the activist Max Schrames and Facebook is significant because it may affect the way companies use publicly available information for targeted advertising and the level of protection of privacy rights under the GDPR.
The court’s final ruling, which is expected in the coming months, will be binding and will assess the proportionality of the length of time that Facebook holds personal data for personalized advertisements.
Through Bloomberg